Hand-In-Scan™ is a global organization developing industry-leading training systems proven to significantly improve hand hygiene behaviours that eliminate the spread of infectious disease. Hand-in-Scan asked MEDIC to provide digital health expertise to support their expansion in North America.
Research Area: MEDIC
Research Team: Andrew Norgate, Brian VanOosten, Paul Picheca
Future Ready Challenge
Statistics show that approximately 220,000 Canadian and over 1 million US patients acquire a new infection during a hospital visit every year. That is why health-care providers strive to break “the chain of infection.” It is a basic infection control principle that recognizes that transmission of an infection in a hospital requires having a source of infection, a susceptible patient and a means of transmission for the infection. One of the simplest chains of inflection is when an infected patient is cared for by a healthcare worker who does not wash his or her hands before caring for another patient. However, data suggests that only a small percentage of healthcare workers clean their hands to a satisfactory degree on a regular basis.
R & D Collaboration
Hand-in-Scan™ is a global organization developing industry-leading training systems proven to significantly improve hand-hygiene behaviours that eliminate the spread of infectious disease. This is accomplished through strategic partnerships with leading global hand hygiene experts in combination with patented AI technology. The result is a user-friendly system for educating, reporting, and improving life-saving processes. Designed as a training, education and monitoring tool, using the scanner is simple. First you sanitize your hands using a special hand rub solution, then you insert your hands into the scanner. The unit’s screen displays in green the areas of each hand that has been effectively covered by the solution, and in red the areas that have been missed. Hand-in-Scan™ asked MEDIC, a Canadian Technology Access Centre in Digital Health, to assist the company with its expansion in North America.
Innovative Results
The MEDIC research team first conducted a full market evaluation and technical assessment of Hand-In-Scan’s current product offerings and identified opportunities for product development. The research team then provided the company with a detailed technical architecture review - making sure that their system is ready to be deployed and used widely in North American healthcare settings. MEDIC also developed the data management processes to support the company’s next growth phase, when they launch a hand-washing certification program for health.
The partnership with Mohawk College has helped Hand-in-Scan™ improve their tools and position the company for a successful expansion in North America. The two organizations will continue to work together, as MEDIC helps Hand-in-Scan™ design a Hand Hygiene certification program that will be piloted at Mohawk’s Institute of Applied Health Science (IAHS). Hand-in-Scan™ is also currently working with the Additive Manufacturing Innovation Centre to develop a workflow process to help streamline the manufacturing of the Semmelweis Scanner™ hardware which, along with the reporting software, is a key component of the complete Hand-in-Scan™ system.