Rights for All

Because many COVID-19 infections are caused by hand-to-face touching, CDC Guidance stresses frequent hand-washing and avoiding face-touching, but these corrective habits are difficult to form.  Control strategies that do not require human compliance are more effective than those that do.  Rights are elbow gear that block elbow flexion at right angles, preventing contaminated hands from contaminating faces.  Prevention-conscious world citizens are doing everything in their power to avoid contracting COVID-19, but no low tech and low cost device isolates the hands from face-touching until now.  Powered Air-Purifying Respirators (PAPRs) block face-touching, but are costly, in short supply, and unavailable to the public at large.  Rights are inexpensive and can be made available to all world citizens at risk, helping to prevent infection and spread of COVID-19.  Are you at risk of infection?  Get Right with yourself - know your Rights!  Everyone deserves their Rights to fight COVID-19!!  Rights for ALL!!!

The world has come to a halt medically, commercially, and financially due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.  To date worldwide, over 8 million people are infected and over 400 thousand are dead.  Amidst unprecedented efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, the global economy is tanking while civil unrest emerges.  Bringing this pandemic under control is the current top priority for the remaining nearly 8 billion humans.  At its current rate, 400 million people may die from COVID-19, unless we get much better at preventing the disease.  This is the problem Rights aim to solve.  Rights increase resistance to pandemic spread by blocking a major route of infection for individuals.  Infection occurs not only by breathing in the novel coronavirus, but also by self-contaminating the face with droplets of the virus.  Rights work by blocking the droplet route of infection by isolating the source of contamination (the hands and fingers) from the site of infection (the mouth, nose, and eyes). On the Hierarchy of Controls, this engineering control (Rights) is considered more effective than both administrative controls (CDC Guidance e.g.) and PPE (gloves, masks, face shields).  Restated, Rights are engineered to prevent infection better than CDC guidance and PPE. 

Rights block elbow flexion at right angles.  This isolates hands and fingers physically from touching and contaminating the face, preventing infection and spread of COVID-19.  Although many people will choose a combined approach, Rights work without the need to follow instructions or wear gloves or masks, and over time reduce reliance on PPE, which remains in global short supply.  Rights equip wearers to extinguish the hazardous habit of face-touching.  Children and vulnerable elderly have difficulty correcting faulty habits and benefit from devices that correct these behaviors for them.  With adequate funding, possibly as the basic mechanical model scales, Rights may embed Internet of Things (IoT) technology to track blocked flexions prompting real-time feedback to wash hands and displaying trend analyses on smart devices to help families and other groups counsel their members and stakeholders to wean faulty habits in favor of protective behaviors. 

While the CDC confirms that a top priority to impact lives by saving lives is to replace hazardous hygiene habits with protective habits that improve hand and face hygiene, all they offer is guidance. More effective than guidance is a device that assists in achieving the goal, without conscious thought or need for compliance, but this has been lacking with regard to guidance to avoid face-touching, until now.  All souls at risk of droplet-route COVID-19 infection, who choose to prevent it, will be equipped with these low-tech assistive devices (Rights) that effectively increase resistance to infection.  Regardless the degree of hand contamination, facial contamination will be blocked, and attempts to contaminate (blocked flexions) will be tracked, so that tallied numbers (trends) of blocked flexions can be understood and serve as feedback toward the goal of weaning the tendency to face-touch and encourage higher frequency of hand-washing in real-time.  

The COVID-19 pandemic is the reason for this Challenge and the inspiration for the development of Rights, bringing the problem, the solution, and the target population described above all into alignment. 

Rights do not compete with CDC Guidance and PPE but work synergistically to prevent COVID-19.  The only other Engineering Control besides Rights that effectively block the hands from touching the face are Powered Air-Pressured Respirators (PAPRs).  As Rights and PAPRs occupy a position on the Hierarchy of Controls higher than both CDC Guidance and PPE, and Rights is a low tech, low cost, lightweight solution suitable for global deployment, CDC Guidance popularity and PPE demand represent the most appropriate metric of demand for Rights, permitting forecasts and valuation. 

Rights are an innovation of existing technology.  Braces have long existed to strategically help or hinder human joint movement. Yet there is no elbow brace developed for the specific purpose of blocking elbow flexion to keep the hands and fingers from touching the face, which is the repurposed existing technology that comprises Rights.  Any method to block elbow flexion at or near right angles for this purpose is Rights.  Additional features may include: a manual release to permit flexion past right angles when necessary, a locking device to lock the gear in the default blocking mode or in the released full-range mode as desired, and sensors, microprocessors, and an IoT app to permit smart devices to track blocked flexions of one or more users for the purpose of eliminating faulty behaviors, and developing healthy hygiene behaviors, to better combat infection and spread of COVID-19.  Optional participation in a deidentified Rights community would potentially cue users to population and infection density statistics and contact tracing.

Humans have effectively benefitted from braces since antiquity.  Blocking targeted movement while permitting peripheral movement is what braces do.  Accordingly, Rights do not affect hand and wrist dexterity and manipulation.  When the elbow angle remains obtuse, Rights do not affect elbow function either.  But by blocking elbow flexion at roughly 90 degrees, Rights do prevent elbows from achieving acute angles. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are the most reliable source for public health knowledge during a pandemic.  As an Administrative Control, the CDC publishes Guidance as a means of stategy to change behaviors to prevent infection and spread of COVID-19.  One of their strongest recommendations is to avoid face-touching.  After much scholarly work, they have determined doing so will prevent infection by the droplet route of self-contamination of the face by the hands.  It states further that engineering controls are more effective than guidance and PPE, so we expect Rights to be a better solution than what currently exists.  The FDA has confirmed that Rights are not considered a medical device.  Accordingly, commercialization is not constrained by FDA restrictions and any individual can obtain their Rights without a medical prescription.  The desired outcome of such behavioral change strategy is improved individual facial hygiene and subsequent improved resistance to community spread of SARS-CoV-2 on both the local and global level.  

In prototype phase presently.  Given the impact of novel coronavirus on humans on every level, and the likelihood for continued spread until a vaccine is available, demand is likely to support scaling throughout each country, with promotion, on par with demand for PPE, in the millions to billions. With nearly 8 billion people still at risk of infection and hundreds of millions likely to die, demand for Rights is not likely to level off with five years.

A design is completed and prototype is underway.  This year, the designs and prototypes will hopefully be funded by a successful crowdfunding campaign sufficient to generate molds and scale production.  Target populations will be vulnerable populations and frontline healthcare workers.  B2B governments, corporations, and insurance companies are targets to scale quickly, with individuals claiming their Rights via online purchases.  With enough promotion, sales should fuel scaling to a worldwide market within two years and support a nonprofit organization targeting disenfranchised populations.  A vaccine will likely be available by then, but other pandemics are predicted, and various occupational and safety risks are likely to benefit from this engineering control, so demand is likely to shift over time without exhausting itself in 5 years time.

Since March, the main barrier has been lack of seed money to fund business development, R&D, and marketing.  That will continue until presales via crowdfunding become available.  My day job keeps me from devoting time to develop the business to gain needed traction. Time, money, and expertise limitations continue to restrict efforts to effectively develop Rights.  Presently, prototype development is underway in anticipation of a crowdfunding campaign later this summer or fall, which will be our first.  Optimizing the crowdfunding launch for success is critical to enable development and initial deployment of basic mechanical Rights within the next 2-5 years beyond the United States to those countries most affected by COVID-19.  Additional funding through an exceptionally successful campaign hitting reach goals will enable IoT Smart Rights to develop alongside Basic Rights. 

Business, financial, and engineering expertise are needed to successfully fund the development and deployment of Rights. 

I am currently reducing time at my day job to have more time to pursue this venture.  Additional time away from my day job will be addressed when my participation becomes the bottleneck.  

My family and I have devoted funds as able to begin design and prototype development.  Outside funding for full mechanical and industrial design iterations, prototype testing, and research comparing Rights with Guidance and PPE is currently sought from grant sources, and once the costs are known creating a business plan for debt financing if needed. 

On our present budget, we have commissioned an engineer for designing Rights and a prosthetist to assist in refinement.  For additional business financial and engineering expertise, I have attempted to align with angel investors and brace manufacturers, so far to no avail.  

I did not select “Other”, but this section is listed as Needs More Detail.  Above I selected Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit. 

Although CONTAM ME NOT is a standalone business, it is interested in forming alliances with like companies and organizations that can benefit mutually.  One such company is Botanisol Analytics.  They are developing a scanning technology to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces, in air and water.  The real-time knowledge of SARS-CoV-2 strain's presence will premit real-time and retrospective sleuthing of pathogen sourcing and containment, from nation to community, to neighborhood, to building, to floor, to room.

6 part time

2 contractors

I'm a physiatrist, so I know about braces.  My COO is a maker with a successful Kickstarter campaign.  I am working with Upwork to freelance various tasks so far.  The technology is patent-pending.

Knobbe, Marten, Olson and Bear for legal

Upwork, utilizing freelancers for online presence

E-commerce storefront, fulfilled by manufacturer

Crowdfunding to get to Basic Rights mold and online presence to get initial traction.  Then B2B to scale.

Solve can help CONTAM ME NOT source business, financial, and engineering expertise.  Mentorship are most needed in business and entrepreneurship training.  Proper financial and technical expertise is needed to help us balance funding priorities throughout business and product R&D, as well as promotion throughout growth and scale.  Leveraging Solve's ability to broker those partner relationships, community network, and nine-month mentorship program would catalyze CONTAM ME NOT's ability to grow and scale with least restrictions, speeding attainment of worldwide Rights.

Everything's new during COVID.  CONTAM ME NOT is new to business and world trade.  Our mission is to be a good steward of Rights until each soul who desires protection from COVID-19 has their Rights.  No matter the business model, this can only be accomplished through a network of people aligned with passion toward a common goal.  Solve has already curated relationships far and wide, and the expertise to be successful runs deep in MIT Solve's DNA.  We will rely on Solve to broker win:win partnerships to facilitate every step along the journey to Rights for All.  

CONTAM ME NOT is interested in sound operational and financial assistance.  I would like to explore the entrepreneurial mentoring relationships available within the Solve Community, or forge additional relationships as indicated.  Purposeful iterations demand engineering expertise.  CDC/NIOSH connections would confirm Rights' status on the Hierarchy of Controls and instruct additional target markets within industry.  In light of its placement on the Hierarchy of Controls, a successful research facility partnership is needed to compare the effectiveness of Rights to Guidance and PPE.  Nonprofit, social entrepreneurial, and community outreach resources with a global reach would be helpful to reach all in need.  

As a physiatrist, my passion for over 20 years has been helping America's heroes, our nation's Veterans.  When I envisioned a very simple yet powerful solution to preventing COVID-19, I understood the solution could improve pandemic transmission resistance on a global scale.  Leveraging The Elevate Prize for Health Security resources would enable CONTAM ME NOT to grow and scale so that everyone could express their Rights.  Without the resources, open doors, and global visibility that The Elevate Prize for Health Security provides, deserving people will not have their Rights and will go unprotected.  Keep in mind that Rights represent an engineering control, on the Hierarchy of Controls, against hand-to-mouth droplet contamination and infection.  While no control will be 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections, as an engineering control, Rights are estimated to be even more effective than both CDC Guidance (administrative control) and Personal Protective Equipment (final barrier to infection).  Concerning the present global effectiveness of Guidance and PPE, in order for a countermeasure of this nature to do the most good on a global scale, is not a champion needed such as an Elevate Hero to bring Rights to the people?  

Basic Rights are envisioned as being purely mechanical.  However, with additional funding, Rights become IoT devices.  Embedded with sensors and a microprocessor, blocked flexions will be tallied in real time, much like steps on a podometer, allowing users to track their progress toward correcting faulty habits.  CDC Guidance strongly recommends more frequent hand-washing and avoiding face-touching.  Smart Rights will promote both by alerting users to wash their hands in real time when behaviors suggest the need and by displaying user trends over time on smart displays for champions within groups or families to encourage behavior accordingly.  Within families, Smart Rights will equip the champion to keep watch on all the family members' behaviors, including children in school and elderly parents in nursing homes.  Combining this information with community incidence data will permit AI to gauge the risk of contamination for each individual.  

As the pandemic is not a respecter of economic, financial, and political status, the foreigner is as susceptible as the neighbor to COVID-19 but is seldom equally supported.  Bringing Rights to Refugees would be a simple yet poignant expression of the value of life within this vulnerable population.  A prize that makes that possible would be perhaps the most decent expression of Rights we could hope to see and would receive full support from our nonprofit component.  

Prototype designs and demonstrations will support crowdfunding as the vehicle for mechanical and industrial development, as well as commercial growth and hopefully global scale.  Dedicated expert assistance with the promotion of its crowdfunding campaign, as well as additional matching and award funds is the blessing of CONTAM ME NOT's dreams, funding stretch goal electronics development of Smart Rights rewards, in addition to Basic Rights.  

The for profit component of CONTAM ME NOT will target Healthcare, Insurance, and Industry sectors responsible for many lives.   Without the Future Panet Capital Prize, the beachhead will be companies that represent First Responders and Frontline Healthcare Workers.  But with Future Planet Capital Prize funding, it will be international government contracts.