Towards Vision-Based Smart Hospitals: A System for Tracking and Monitoring Hand Hygiene Compliance

One in twenty-five patients admitted to a hospital will suffer from a hospital acquired infection. If we can intelligently track healthcare staff, patients, and visitors, we can better understand the sources of such infections. We envision a smart hospital capable of increasing operational efficiency and improving patient care with less spending. In this paper, we propose a non-intrusive vision-based system for tracking people's activity in hospitals. We evaluate our method for the problem of measuring hand hygiene compliance. Empirically, our method outperforms existing solutions such as proximity-based techniques and covert in-person observational studies. We present intuitive, qualitative results that analyze human movement patterns and conduct spatial analytics which convey our method's interpretability. This work is a step towards a computer-vision based smart hospital and demonstrates promising results for reducing hospital acquired infections.Comment: Machine Learning for Healthcare Conference (MLHC

Monitoring Pharmacy Student Adherence to World Health Organization Hand Hygiene Indications Using Radio Frequency Identification

Objective. To assess and improve student adherence to hand hygiene indications using radio frequency identification (RFID) enabled hand hygiene stations and performance report cards. Design. Students volunteered to wear RFID-enabled hospital employee nametags to monitor their adherence to hand-hygiene indications. After training in World Health Organization (WHO) hand hygiene methods and indications, student were instructed to treat the classroom as a patient care area. Report cards illustrating individual performance were distributed via e-mail to students at the middle and end of each 5-day observation period. Students were eligible for individual and team prizes consisting of Starbucks gift cards in $5 increments. Assessment. A hand hygiene station with an RFID reader and dispensing sensor recorded the nametag nearest to the station at the time of use. Mean frequency of use per student was 5.41 (range: 2-10). Distance between the student’s seat and the dispenser was the only variable significantly associated with adherence. Student satisfaction with the system was assessed by a self-administered survey at the end of the study. Most students reported that the system increased their motivation to perform hand hygiene as indicated. Conclusion. The RFID-enabled hand hygiene system and benchmarking reports with performance incentives was feasible, reliable, and affordable. Future studies should record video to monitor adherence to the WHO 8-step technique

Automated hand hygiene monitoring system using imagery and bluetooth low energy sensors

This thesis designs and implements a hand hygiene monitoring system using Bluetooth low energy and imagery sensors. As the cost of treating healthcare-associated infections increases, the need for monitoring and improving hand hygiene compliance percentages for healthcare providers increases. Several techniques for hand hygiene compliance monitoring exist, but it was found that electronic automated systems are the most reliable solution because they provide more accurate continuous compliance measurements for lower cost. Other similar systems based on a variety of technologies exist, however, they are either uniquely evidence based, so that they capture hygiene moments and apply a statistical model for hygiene opportunities, and they, therefore, do not provide real-time information; or they require human interference to determine compliance rendering them not fully automated. In this thesis, available monitoring techniques, focusing on automated electronic systems, are first introduced. Then, a novel automated hand hygiene monitoring system, capable of capturing hygiene moments with more than 90% precision, is proposed. The proposed system was first tested in a lab environment with private rooms setup, the system was also tested in semi-private rooms setup and then implemented in the Hematology and Oncology Department at the Health Sciences Center of Eastern Health for a pilot study. The study showed a high correlation between the compliance rates calculated by the proposed system compared to the compliance rates found by direct observers

Tracking and Hands Motion Detection Approach for Monitoring Hand-Hygiene Compliance for Food Handling and Processing Industry

Hand-hygiene is a very critical issue for both food handling and processing industry and health care service providers. Poor hand-hygiene practice can easily lead to foodborne illness or large scale decease transmission. In this research, an automatic tracking and monitoring system was developed that used a 3D camera for hand washing and hands motion detection and a sensor-based monitoring system for hand-hygiene activities evaluation. An active Wi-Fi portable Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag was used for personal ID tracking. The effective hand washing time, soaping time were measured based on the hands motion detection and hand movement tracking. Water temperature, water flow, paper towel, soap and hand sanitizer usage were also measured for each hand washing event. All the data were forwarded to a system server for data recording, storage and management. Preliminary test data were collected to evaluate the system performance. The results showed that the system could effectively collect most of the hand-hygiene related factors including hand-hygiene product usage, hand washing time and soap lathering time for hand-hygiene evaluation.Biosystems & Agricultural Engineerin

Technology Target Studies: Technology Solutions to Make Patient Care Safer and More Efficient

Presents findings on technologies that could enhance care delivery, including patient records and medication processes; features and functionality nurses require, including tracking, interoperability, and hand-held capability; and best practices

Software application for emergency responders, SAFER 2.0

The SAFER 2.0 was developed as a web based information system for the First Responders involved in dealing with the hazardous materials incidents. The software tool enables First Responders to view and identify the substances involved in a hazard via a secure Internet connection. The tool also aids in identifying the unknown substances based on the physical description (color, odor, texture, gas/liquid, etc.), symptoms and other information available at the site of the incident. The system is based on the 2004 North American Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG2004) and NIOSH Pocket Guide (NPG). ERG2004 was developed for use by firefighters, police, and other emergency services personnel who may be the first to arrive at the scene of a transportation incident involving a hazardous material. The NPG presents key information and data for 677 chemicals.;The software tool was implemented using the latest technology available i.e. ASP.NET 2.0 as the front-end and SQL Server 2005 as the database. The key features of the system are: (1) Easy to use, (2) Easy and rapid access to information during a critical incident, (3) Identification of unknown substances, and (4) Protection of First Responders and general public

Miniaturized antenna and transponder based wireless sensors for internet of things in healthcare

Future medical and healthcare systems will be largely improved by the wide-spreading of internet of things (IoTs). One of the crucial challenges of IoTs for healthcare is at the wireless sensors. Miniaturization of sensor node profile, minimizing power consumption as well as lowering down design/production cost of antenna, RF circuits and sensor modules have become the key issues for realizing more exciting applications in medical and healthcare fields that never seemed to be possible before. In this dissertation work, we first focus on electrically small antenna (ESA) design and fabrication for medical telemetry. A comprehensive analysis of the radiation properties of a novel electrically small folded ellipsoidal ESA is presented, showing its ability to self-resonate and impedance match without external components. It will benefit various size-restricted applications especially with wireless medical implants. The second focus is on healthcare sensors using ESA as the sensing agent, which saves the power and cost by eliminating the need of extra sensing modules. Specifically, miniaturized helix ESAs are integrated with drug reservoirs to function as wireless transponder sensors for real-time drug dosage monitoring. We also introduce a system level innovation of a passive wireless harmonic transponder/harmonic sniffer/frequency hopped interrogator based sensing system. The μL- liquid level resolution and absolute-accuracy passive sensing is demonstrated in the presence of strong direct coupling, background scatters, distance variance as well as near-filed human body movement interference. Furthermore, we investigate how modern ubiquitous wireless sensor networks could take advantage of sensitive nanostructure materials for enhanced performance. Here we propose a new paradigm of chemically-gated mixed modulation on a single homogeneous graphene device in which the chemical exposure directly modulates an electrical carrier signal. To make the device ubiquitously reusable, a method of precisely tuning the charge neutrality point (Vcnp) is introduced by electrochemical calibration with gate voltage pulse sequence. Such chemically gated graphene modulator can be potentially used in a harmonic transponder as a passive ubiquitous sensor node for chemical and bio sensing applications. Overall the research work presented in the dissertation will help enable cost and power-efficient wireless sensor networks in future healthcare IoTs.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

An Integrated Conceptual Framework for RFID Enabled Healthcare

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is a wireless communication technology that facilitates automatic identification and data capture without human intervention. Since 2000s, RFID applications in the health care industry are increasing.  RFID has brought many improvements in areas like patient care, patient safety, equipment tracking, resource utilization, processing time reduction and so on. On the other hand, often deployment of RFID is questioned on the issues like high capital investment, technological complexity, and privacy concerns. Exploration of existing literature indicates the presence of works on the topics like asset management, patient management, staff management, institutional advantages, and organizational issues. However, most of the works are focused on a particular issue. Still now, scholarly attempts to integrate all the facades of RFID-enabled healthcare are limited. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework that represents the scope for implementation of this technology and the various dimensions of RFID-enabled healthcare and demonstrate them in detail. Also, we have discussed the critical issues that can prove to be potential barriers to its successful implementation and current approaches to resolving these. We also discuss some of the regulatory initiatives encouraging its adoption in the healthcare industry. Also, we have highlighted the future research opportunities in this domain