Wash Your Hands, Or Dice Buzzed!

Here's a clever device as well as system, designed at the MIT Media Lab, that helps clinicians recollect to launder their hands.  An excerpt:

Called MedSense Clear, the arrangement revolves only about a badge worn past times infirmary staff. The badge tin nation when a worker comes nigh or leaves a patient’s side, as well as whether that worker has used an alcohol-based sanitizer or lather dispenser during those times. It every bit good vibrates to remind workers to launder up. The badge thus sends information to a base of operations station that pushes the information to a Web page where individuals tin monitor their hand-washing, as well as administrators tin come across information most overall hand-hygiene compliance amidst staff.

The question, I guess, is whether the buzzing volition terminate upwardly existence some other displace of alert fatigue--only to last ignored or bypassed inwards some way.  The results of the initial report was promising:

A 2014 report inwards the Journal of Infection as well as Public Health concluded that compliance amongst WHO hand-washing rules jumped 25 per centum inwards 1 calendar month when staff used MedSense inwards a 16-bed infirmary unit of measurement at Salmaniya Medical Complex inwards Bahrain. 

We bring to wonder if this is the Hawthorne Effect at work. How persistent is the effect? Time volition tell.

Share this post