PCEC News
aMDI Receives Grant for Hand Hygiene Compliance System Development with Lifesaving Impact
June 30, 2017
According to the World Health Organization, each year in the U.S. alone, hospital associated infections kill over 100,000 patients each year, resulting in billions of dollars in unnecessary costs. Proper hand hygiene of health care workers remains a critical component in reducing the spread of infection and antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Brent Nowak, Executive Director of the Applied Medical Device Institute (aMDI) explained that, “aMDI provides a range of services that include opportunity identification, ideation, concept development, prototyping, engineering development, testing, and support commercialization efforts in working with manufacturers, contract manufacturing, and sales & distribution enterprises. Our focus is on medical devices and manufacturing of medical devices, which includes packaging, labeling, sterilization, and related elements of the business.”
As such, aMDI has been engaged by Sterilogy, a small business that was introduced to aMDI through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) Small Company Innovation Program/Technology and Commercialization Assistance (SCIP/TCA) program, to develop and demonstrate the technical feasibility of a novel wireless technology that addresses this serious hygiene issue.
The solution, patented by Sterilogy, will consist of a compact, body-worn hand hygiene compliance system that provides electronic reminders and allows sanitizing events to occur at the “point of care,” thus eliminating intermediate sources of contamination, such as clip boards, door knobs, hospital beds, et. al. Additionally, the technology can transcend medical applications and also be applied in school systems, food service, or other industries with high levels of human contact.
The State grant awarded to the team matches 1:1 funding from Sterilogy, and will allow aMDI to provide opportunities for scholarly work, as well as high-impact learning opportunities for students, while helping to grow the west-Michigan economy. This aMDI project will engage affiliate electrical engineering professor Karl Brakora, Ph.D., one of Dr. Brakora’s graduate students, as well as the aMDI staff.
For more information about the Applied Medical Device Institute, visit the website at https://www.gvsu.edu/amdi/