Hospital Hygiene
SwipeSense was born out of Yuri Malina ’11 and Mert Iseri’s concern that more than 100,000 people die due to hospital-acquired infections each year. There had to be a way, the Northwestern roommates reasoned, to reduce that number — either through better hand-washing, technology, or some combination of the two. Malina, a graduate of Weinberg’s Integrated Science Program, and Iseri (McCormick ’11) have gone on to develop a clip-on hand-sanitizer dispenser that electronically records every use. Then, the system wirelessly analyzes how often users are washing their hands and rewards them for good behavior. In a controlled study, the device was shown to improve hand hygiene among users by 64 percent.
SwipeSense, which will have a presence at 12 hospitals by the end of this year, was one of three finalists for the Wall Street Journal’s 2013 Startup of the Year award.