System and method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11238721-B2
Application number	US-202016907458-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 22, 2020
Priority date	Sep 4, 2018
Publication date	Feb 1, 2022
Grant date	Feb 1, 2022

Abstract

A system and computer-implemented method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene is provided. The system comprises one or more sensors configured to determine presence of one or more individuals in vicinity. The system further comprises one or more controllers configured to ascertain identity of the one or more individuals. The one or more controllers are further configured to send one or more alerts to the one or more identified individuals to wash their hands. Furthermore, the one or more controllers are configured to monitor one or more handwashing instances by the one or more identified individuals and generate one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances. The one or more controllers are also configured to initiate one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on the generated one or more compliance results.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene, the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to determine presence of one or more individuals based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values received from one or more user devices associated with the individuals; and
one or more controllers configured to:
send one or more alerts to the one or more individuals to wash hands, wherein upon determination of the presence of the individuals associated with the user devices, the one or more sensors sends a trigger to the one or more controllers to communicate with at least one of: one or more dispensers and the user devices to alert the individuals to wash hands;
monitor one or more handwashing instances of the one or more individuals in real-time by at least one of: the dispenser, a hand hygiene application in the user devices associated with the individual based on training carried out using handwashing samples, wherein the handwashing samples represent compliances and non-compliances with handwashing patterns and sequences associated with handwashing guidelines;
generate one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on comparison between data from the one or more user devices, including motion sensing and recognition technologies, and pre-defined threshold values associated with the compliances and the non-compliances of the handwashing guidelines; and
initiate one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances using pre-stored configurable workflows based on the generated one or more compliance results.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the trigger comprises at least one of: details of the user devices, identification data of the individuals, time-stamps, location information and dispenser data.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers ascertain identity of the individuals globally at an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, a cloud platform, an edge computing platform, a fog computing platform and a server.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers communicate with the one or more dispensers and the user devices by at least one of: turning on a light on the user devices and the dispensers or by initiating blinking of a light on the user devices and the dispensers if the individual is in a vicinity of the dispenser, and the individuals are alerted by a notification to wash hands if the individuals are not in the vicinity of the dispenser.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers communicate with the dispenser to send an alert via an audio alert, a visual alert and an automatic dispensing of hand washing product if the individuals are in a vicinity of the dispenser.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the compliance of handwashing guidelines is determined based on at least time-series pattern matching and event detection algorithms, Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithms, different distance metrics, clustering and correlation techniques and spectral techniques.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the handwashing samples are categorized into predefined categories comprising at least one of: vigorous, normal and slow based on the predefined threshold values.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the data from the motion sensing and recognition technologies of the user devices is processed and categorized based on energy computations and root mean square values.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the pre-defined threshold values are generated based on features of the handwashing samples including minimum, maximum, median, mode, standard deviation, kurtosis, frequency domain features and statistical features, and the corresponding values.

10. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise cameras, beacons, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) readers, proximity sensors, movement sensors, audio sensors, light sensors, activity sensors, motion sensors and olfactory sensors.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more compliance results are analyzed to generate insights comprising information related to least and most non-compliant individuals, gamification, the dispenser and controller diagnostics, the dispenser refilling prediction and most and least compliant zones and places.

12. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the one or more controllers provide one or more gamification elements comprising individual scores, leaderboards, rankings, incentive models and compliance percentages using the one or more compliance results.

13. A method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene, wherein the method is implemented by a processor executing instructions stored in a memory, the method comprising:
determining presence of one or more individuals by one or more sensors based on Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) values received from one or more user devices associated with the individuals;
sending one or more alerts to the one or more individuals to wash hands, wherein upon determination of the presence of the individuals associated with the user devices, the one or more sensors sends a trigger to the one or more controllers to communicate with at least one of: one or more dispensers and the user devices to alert the individuals to wash hands;
monitoring one or more handwashing instances by the one or more individuals in real-time by at least one of: the dispenser, a hand hygiene application in the user devices associated with the individual based on training carried out using handwashing samples, wherein the handwashing samples represent compliances and non-compliances with handwashing patterns and sequences associated with handwashing guidelines;
generating one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on comparison between data from the one or more user devices, including motion sensing and recognition technologies, and pre-defined threshold values associated with the compliances and the non-compliances of the handwashing guidelines; and
initiating one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances using pre-stored configurable workflows based on the generated one or more compliance results.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the triggers comprises at least one of: details of the user devices, user identification data of the individuals, time-stamps, location information and dispenser data.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein one or more controllers ascertain identity of the individuals globally at an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, a cloud platform, an edge computing platform, a fog computing platform and a server.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the one or more controllers communicate with the one or more dispensers and the user devices by at least one of: turning on a light on one or more user devices and the one or more dispensers, initiate blinking of a light on the user devices and the dispensers if the individuals are in a vicinity of the dispenser, and the individuals are alerted by a notification to wash hands if the individuals are not in the vicinity of the dispenser.

17. The method as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the one or more controllers communicate with the dispenser to send an alert via an audio alert, a visual alert and an automatic dispensing of hand washing product, if the individuals are in a vicinity of the dispense

Assignees

• Cognizant Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd

Inventors

• Waghode Nitesh Dattu
• Diwanji Vivek Vasant
• Pingle Amit Bindumadhav
• Pradhan Himanshu
• Patil Mandar Pandurang
• Singhal Aman
• Sharma Ashish

Classifications

• G08B21/245 Primary

  Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title

• G16H40/20

  for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms · CPC title