Why Organizations Choose ATEK Over Rees Scientific
The Centron continuous monitoring platform has been a fixture in hospital pharmacies and blood banks since Rees Scientific began serving healthcare facilities in the late 1970s. For facilities with Centron deployments tracking critical temperatures in blood storage units, pharmacy refrigerators, and laboratory freezers, the platform represents institutional knowledge built over decades. But as healthcare monitoring requirements expand beyond on-premises alarm systems toward cloud-native platforms with real-time remote access, mobile alerts, and integrated compliance documentation, the question facing Centron customers is whether a legacy architecture can keep pace with modern operational demands.
Understanding Rees Scientific
Rees Scientific was founded around 1978 in the Pioneer/Trenton, New Jersey area, making it one of the longest-running names in healthcare environmental monitoring. The company is privately held and operates with a focused team serving hospital pharmacy, blood bank, and clinical laboratory environments across the United States.
The Centron continuous monitoring system is the company’s flagship product, providing centralized temperature and environmental monitoring with alarm management for healthcare facilities. Rees Scientific also offers TempTrak monitoring and wireless sensor options for pharmacy and lab applications. The company claims FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance for the Centron platform and provides NIST-traceable calibration through third-party calibration vendors.
Rees Scientific’s recognized strengths include:
- Hospital Pharmacy and Blood Bank Heritage — Nearly five decades in healthcare monitoring gives Rees Scientific unmatched institutional familiarity in blood bank temperature tracking and pharmacy compliance workflows. Many hospital quality teams learned environmental monitoring on Centron systems, and that depth of domain knowledge is genuine
- Centron Platform Recognition — The Centron name carries weight in US hospital procurement, particularly in blood bank departments where continuous monitoring has life-safety implications. Existing Centron deployments represent significant institutional investment in configuration, training, and validation documentation
- Custom Enterprise Deployments — Rees Scientific tailors monitoring configurations for complex healthcare campuses, integrating with building management systems and legacy alarm infrastructure that standard off-the-shelf platforms may not accommodate
Common Challenges with Rees Scientific
Organizations evaluating or currently using Rees Scientific frequently encounter these considerations:
- Aging Platform Architecture — The Centron system’s core design predates cloud computing. On-premises servers, manual software update processes, and limited remote access capabilities create operational overhead that modern cloud platforms have eliminated. IT teams managing Centron infrastructure face maintenance burdens that competing solutions no longer require
- Limited Cloud and Mobile Capabilities — Healthcare professionals increasingly need monitoring visibility from anywhere: during rounds, at home during off-hours, or across multiple facilities. Centron’s limited mobile access and dated web interface make real-time remote monitoring difficult compared to platforms designed for mobile-first workflows
- Third-Party Calibration Dependency — Without an in-house calibration lab, Rees Scientific relies on external providers for NIST-traceable calibration. This introduces coordination overhead, variable turnaround times, separate invoicing, and potential compliance documentation gaps when calibration certificates come from a vendor outside the monitoring chain
- Business-Hours Support Model — Phone and email support during business hours leaves overnight and weekend excursions without immediate human response. For blood bank and pharmacy environments where temperature excursions can compromise patient safety, after-hours gaps in support coverage represent a meaningful risk
- Small Company, Limited Geographic Reach — As a small, privately held company in New Jersey, Rees Scientific has a constrained support team and no presence outside the US. Canadian facilities, bilingual requirements, and organizations needing rapid on-site response across wide geographies face coverage limitations
How ATEK Addresses These Needs
Cloud-Native Platform Replacing Legacy Infrastructure: Centron customers managing on-premises servers, coordinating software updates, and troubleshooting aging infrastructure can move to ATEK’s cloud platform where updates deploy automatically, dashboards are accessible from any device, and there are no servers to maintain. For hospital pharmacy environments where pharmacy and quality teams need real-time visibility without IT intermediation, the shift from Centron’s server-dependent model to ATEK’s cloud architecture removes a layer of operational complexity.
A2LA-Accredited Calibration Replacing Third-Party Coordination: Rees Scientific’s reliance on external calibration vendors means facilities coordinate with a separate company for calibration scheduling, sensor shipping, certificate tracking, and invoice processing. ATEK’s in-house A2LA-accredited lab (ISO 17025) consolidates calibration within the monitoring vendor relationship. Turnaround is measured in days instead of weeks, traceability documentation is included, and there is no separate vendor to manage.
24/7 Live Support Covering the Overnight Gap: Centron customers accustomed to business-hours support face a coverage gap during evenings, weekends, and holidays. When a blood bank freezer alarm triggers at 3 AM, ATEK’s Montreal-based team answers within five minutes, guaranteed. For healthcare facilities where temperature excursions have direct patient safety implications, the difference between a 5-minute response and a next-business-day callback is consequential.
Predictable Pricing Replacing Enterprise Licensing: Centron deployments typically involve layered costs: hardware purchase, software licensing, annual maintenance, professional services for installation and configuration, separate calibration invoicing, and additional charges for validation documentation. ATEK’s all-inclusive per-monitoring-point pricing bundles hardware, software, calibration, validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), training, and 24/7 support into a single rate with no hidden costs or annual escalations.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Factor | Rees Scientific | ATEK | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital pharmacy and blood bank heritage | ~45 years, deep expertise | Strong vertical, growing | Rees Scientific |
| Centron healthcare install base | Established in US hospitals | Expanding | Rees Scientific |
| Platform architecture | On-premises, legacy | Cloud-native, modern | ATEK |
| Mobile and remote access | Limited | Full mobile app, any device | ATEK |
| Calibration | Third-party, NIST-traceable | A2LA-accredited in-house | ATEK |
| Support availability | Business hours, phone/email | 24/7, 5-minute guarantee | ATEK |
| Bilingual support (EN/FR) | Not available | Native bilingual | ATEK |
| Pricing model | Enterprise licensing + add-ons | All-inclusive per point | ATEK |
Who Benefits Most from Switching
- Centron customers approaching license renewal or hardware refresh cycles who want to evaluate cloud-native alternatives before reinvesting in aging on-premises infrastructure and legacy server dependencies
- Multi-site healthcare organizations managing separate Centron installations at each facility, seeking a unified cloud platform with centralized dashboards, cross-site reporting, and consistent alarm configurations without per-site server maintenance
- Blood bank and pharmacy teams frustrated by limited mobile access who need real-time temperature monitoring on mobile devices during rounds, off-site, or during after-hours on-call shifts
- Canadian healthcare facilities currently using or evaluating Rees Scientific that require bilingual support, Canadian data residency, PIPEDA compliance, and local regulatory expertise
Making the Transition
Switching from Centron to ATEK follows a structured approach designed to maintain continuous compliance throughout the migration:
- Centron Deployment Mapping — We document your current Centron installation: sensor locations across blood bank units, pharmacy refrigerators, and laboratory freezers; alarm thresholds and escalation rules; integration points with building management or nurse call systems; and existing validation documentation that must be maintained or superseded
- Parallel Operation — ATEK wireless sensors install alongside existing Centron probes. Both systems capture data simultaneously during the validation period, ensuring continuous monitoring records for regulatory inspectors. No gaps in documentation, no interruption to existing alarm coverage
- Compliance Validation — Complete IQ/OQ/PQ documentation is included. ATEK’s team provides equivalency documentation demonstrating that cloud-based continuous monitoring meets or exceeds the monitoring performance of your Centron installation, with specific attention to blood bank and pharmacy compliance requirements
- Phased Cutover — Migration proceeds by zone or facility, with 24/7 support during the transition period. Pharmacy and blood bank teams receive hands-on training on ATEK’s mobile and web interfaces. Schedule a consultation to map the transition timeline for your specific Centron deployment
When Rees Scientific May Be the Right Fit
Rees Scientific can be appropriate for US-based hospital systems with deep institutional investment in Centron infrastructure, particularly blood bank departments where the platform’s long history and staff familiarity provide operational continuity. Organizations with dedicated IT resources for on-premises server management, no requirement for cloud-native mobile access, and existing relationships with Rees Scientific’s support team may prefer to continue with a known vendor, especially if their monitoring scope remains limited to traditional healthcare environments.
When ATEK Is the Better Choice
Choose ATEK when you need:
- Cloud-native monitoring replacing Centron’s on-premises servers — no infrastructure to maintain, automatic updates, real-time mobile access from any device
- 24/7 live support covering overnight and weekend excursions — 5-minute guaranteed response when Centron’s business-hours model leaves critical alarms unaddressed
- A2LA-accredited calibration without third-party coordination — in-house lab replacing external calibration vendors, included documentation, faster turnaround
- Monitoring scope beyond hospital pharmacy — unified platform for pharmaceutical manufacturing, biotech, research, and cold chain environments alongside healthcare
- Canadian compliance and bilingual support — PIPEDA, FIPPA, Health Canada regulatory expertise, and native French/English support from a Montreal-based team
Start with a free assessment to see how ATEK’s cloud-native platform compares to your current Centron deployment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ATEK FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant like Rees Scientific’s Centron platform?
Yes. ATEK provides native FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance including electronic signatures, complete audit trails, and ALCOA+ data integrity principles. While Rees Scientific claims Part 11 compliance for Centron, ATEK’s compliance features are built into the cloud platform from the ground up rather than layered onto legacy architecture, and compliance validation documentation (IQ/OQ/PQ) is included in all-inclusive pricing.
How long does it take to migrate from Centron to ATEK?
ATEK’s wireless sensors typically deploy within days per site. Because ATEK operates in parallel alongside your existing Centron system during validation, there is no monitoring gap. Total migration timeline depends on the number of facilities and monitoring points, but most single-site transitions from Centron to full ATEK operation complete within weeks, including validation documentation.
Will we lose historical monitoring data when switching from Rees Scientific?
No. Historical data from your Centron system should be exported and archived according to your retention policies before decommissioning. During parallel operation, both ATEK and Centron capture data simultaneously, creating overlapping records that demonstrate monitoring continuity to regulatory inspectors. ATEK’s team assists with data retention planning as part of the migration.
Can ATEK monitor blood bank environments like Centron does?
Yes. ATEK’s platform supports blood bank temperature monitoring with the same continuous data capture, alarm management, and compliance documentation that blood bank regulations require. The difference is delivery: ATEK provides cloud-based real-time dashboards, mobile alerts, and 24/7 live support, while Centron relies on on-premises infrastructure and business-hours support for the same monitoring function.
How does ATEK’s calibration compare to Rees Scientific’s third-party calibration?
Rees Scientific coordinates NIST-traceable calibration through third-party providers, requiring separate scheduling, sensor shipping, certificate tracking, and invoicing. ATEK’s in-house A2LA-accredited lab (ISO 17025) handles calibration directly with faster turnaround, included traceability documentation, and no external vendor coordination. For Canadian facilities, ATEK’s local lab also eliminates cross-border shipping delays.
Is ATEK suitable for organizations that monitor beyond hospital pharmacy?
Yes, and this is a key differentiator. Rees Scientific focuses on hospital pharmacy, blood bank, and laboratory monitoring. ATEK serves those same environments plus pharmaceutical manufacturing, biotech production, cleanrooms, research facilities, and cold chain logistics on a single platform. Organizations managing compliance across multiple regulated verticals benefit from unified monitoring rather than maintaining separate vendor relationships for each environment.