Ignaz: Boost Hygiene Beat Pandemics

Improving hand hygiene and using masks are considered effective ways of combating COVID-19 and a variety of other pathogens, yet many people do not take these measures seriously. When this pandemic slows down, the rate of hand hygiene and mask usage will also drop. This will make mitigating the pandemic’s second wave harder.

We propose a novel patent-pending technology to make hand hygiene and mask usage fun, just like playing a jackpot to win a prize. Our technology relies on inexpensive widely available hardware, thus, it can be used on a large scale in offices, schools, cafeterias, train stations, cruises and airports. After this pandemic is over, it can be used to prevent the spread of cold, flu and Norovirus. When used in airports, it will slow down the spread of future pandemics. Finally, it can reduce the rate of Hospital Acquired infections and save millions of lives every year.

Cleaning hands and using masks are two effective ways of preventing the spread of many pathogens including the COVID-19 virus. However, mask usage and hand hygiene rates are not currently high enough and will definitely decrease once the public falsely believes we are out of the woods. Our solution, Ignaz, named after Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis the 19th century Hungarian Physician who discovered washing hands could prevent infections, has the following benefits:

1) It will reduce the COVID-19 transmission rate and will allow us to reach herd immunity through vaccination faster.

2) Deploying the system in airports will slow down the spread of future pandemics and will buy precious time for scientists to understand a new pathogen and for decision makers to come up with better policies.

3) WHO estimates that each year hundreds of millions of people are affected by Hospital Acquired Infections around the world. WHO considers hand hygiene, a simple, low-cost and effective method for lowering the infection rate, that requires staff accountability and behavioral change. By creating an incentive for staff, Ignaz solves this problem and can save millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars spent on treatment every year.

Ignaz is an Android app that can be installed on a smartphone or a tablet, placed next to a hand sanitizer dispenser (e.g., a plastic bottle dispenser) or a washing sink. The screen will always be on and the app will be running, ready for people to interact with it (similar to self-checkout kiosks at airports).

Ignaz will play a video of correct hand sanitization and will ask the user to follow the steps shown in the video as it is played. The user is recorded, with her permission, and at the end Ignaz will randomly (e.g., 1 out of 100) decide whether the person has won. If she has won, an admin will review the video to verify the person has performed the steps correctly. The reward(s) can be monetary or non-monetary (e.g., priority boarding on a flight, or free coffee).

Ignaz can also take a person’s picture to give her a reward randomly if she has worn a mask.

The availability of good inexpensive new Android devices ($25 for a smartphone) and millions of old devices that are discarded every year (and pollute the environment) makes Ignaz an inexpensive and highly scalable solution that can be used widely.

Ignaz can be used in offices, schools, universities, coffee shops, cafeterias, subway stations, cruises, airports, hospitals and long-term care facilities.

We have discussed the idea of using Ignaz in offices with professionals working in high tech, biotech, and architectural design and have received positive feedback. Ignaz can protect employees against COVID-19 and save employers money lost due to cold and flu every year.

Low hand hygiene compliance rate in hospitals is a well-known problem and an active topic of research. Since the inception, we have been discussing the idea with healthcare professionals, including some professionals actively working to solve the problem in their hospitals, to get their feedback. Once the product is ready, we will contact them to conduct pilot studies in their institutions. In addition to lowering the rate of hospital acquired infections, Ignaz can be used to increase the quality of care by creating an incentive for healthcare workers to follow checklists that have been developed for reducing the complication rate in hospitals.

Regarding usage in universities, U.C. Berkeley Health Services is interested in using Ignaz in dorms and dining halls to improve students' hand hygiene once the campus reopens.

Ignaz is a high tech tool for increasing the usage of old low tech solutions (i.e., soap and face masks) that are effective against a broad range of viruses and bacteria.

1) It will reduce the COVID-19 transmission rate to reach herd immunity through vaccination faster.

2) In airports, Ignaz will slow down the spread of future pandemics and will buy precious time for scientists to understand a new pathogen and for decision makers to come up with better policies. 

3) In hospitals, Ignaz can prevent Hospital Acquired Infections, estimated by WHO to impact hundreds of millions of patients annually.

Posting signs to remind people to wash their hands and wear masks is the most common method currently used. 

Hospitals use a variety of other approaches. Some hospitals ask patients to ask doctors if they have washed their hands, which is not very effective because of the power differential that exists between patients and their doctors. Asking some employees to monitor and report those who do not clean their hands is another method that has been used. But, it adds extra work to the schedule of healthcare workers and can hurt the quality of care in other areas. Despite all the efforts, low hand hygiene is a problem in hospitals. A review of 96 empirical studies has found an overall median compliance rate of 40% in hospitals.

Our solution creates a large unpredictable incentive that offsets people’s invincibility bias. It offers an immediate reward, directly depending on a person’s action.

Our solution relies on inexpensive widely available hardware (i.e., $25 Android phone) or old used smartphones that are discarded, thus, it can be easily scaled. Our product, which is under development, is an Android app. Some versions of the app will access cloud storage and functions, but the basic functionality of the app can be used even in places where there is no internet or cellular access.

The advanced version of our app will use machine learning to:

1) automate video verification to check the person in the video has performed the task correctly, and

2) detect if a person hasn’t used the hand sanitizer or is not wearing a mask to set off an alarm or to calculate compliance rate. This feature has been requested by multiple hospitals.

MIT Solve offers prizes to create an incentive for people to work on world issues. We are using the same principle to incentivize people to perform hygiene tasks such as cleaning hands or wearing masks.

We rely on widely available hardware. This allows us to get to a scale that is necessary for tackling worldwide problems.

Ignaz works by creating an incentive for people to clean their hands or wear masks more often. We all have invincibility bias. We may think that infection happens to others, not to us. We didn’t get an infection the last 10 times that we didn’t wash our hands or wear masks. Thus, it should be ok to skip it this time too.

Psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky showed that we often overestimate our chance of winning the lottery. We may think that although the last 10 tickets we bought didn’t win, this time we will win! This lottery effect is the opposite of the invincibility bias. It can offset the invincibility bias and also create an incentive for people to disinfect their hands more often.

In order to have a major impact in the world, the solution has to be scalable and inexpensive. Ignaz relies on inexpensive smartphones available around the world and used smartphones that will be discarded otherwise (The UN Environment Programme estimates only 16% of e-waste is recycled). By using old smartphones, Ignaz can also reduce the e-waste while mitigating pandemics.

We will finish the first version of the product and run pilots in multiple venues by early fall. After that we will start acquiring users and partnering with organizations that can help us acquire users around the world. At the beginning our focus will be on using Ignaz in offices, schools, universities and small businesses since they are more likely to become early-adopters. Later, we will expand our user base to hospitals, Long Term-Care Facilities (LTCFs) [1], airports, and subway and train stations.

We hope eventually Ignaz will be used in every country to save millions of lives and billions of dollars every year.

[1] In the US alone, CDC estimates every year 100,000 patients die from Hospital Acquired Infections in hospitals and 380,000 people die from infections in LTCFs.

We need funding to hire mobile programmers and machine learning experts to accelerate development and later to hire business development and support staff.

In order to make Ignaz widely used around the world, we need to partner with organizations such as UN and PATH.

We will also need to work with the UN Environment Programme and similar organizations to provide our users the option of reusing old phones, which otherwise will be discarded and will contribute to e-waste, for running Ignaz.

Deploying Ignaz in airports around the world can slow down the spread of pandemics. We will need significant help and support in order to make it happen.

We are applying for grants and may raise money from angels and VCs. We will reach out to organizations for partnership as we make progress in developing Ignaz.

Founder and President: Farzan Fallah, Ph.D., Inventor of Ignaz. Full time.

Advisor: John Swartzberg, MD, FACP, Professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. Part time.

Intern: Michael Scampato, Junior at Fordham University. Part time.

We are going to hire multiple engineers with expertise in mobile app development, cloud, and machine learning to speed up the development upon availability of funds or by offering equity.

We have tens of years of experience in high tech R&D, including mobile app development, healthcare industry and infection control.

Farzan Fallah received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT in 1999. He has 21 years of experience working in industry and academia, including as a scientist at Stanford University. He has experience working in both large companies and in a startup as an engineering director. Farzan has over 20 granted or pending patents, 70 technical and scientific conference and journal papers, and has received 17 industrial contribution awards and 3 best paper awards. 

He has developed novel patented and patent pending technologies in Human-Computer Interaction. To get customer feedback, refine technologies and showcase the technologies’ power, he has developed smartphone and smartwatch apps.

Farzan has studied concepts such as product virality, stickiness, and friction and has successfully used them during product development. Additionally, he has been involved in the marketing and advertising aspect of the work and is familiar with the Lean Startup methodology.

Professor John Swartzberg, MD, FACP, UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. John chairs the editorial board of the School of Public Health’s Health & Wellness Publications and is the past director of and a current lecturer at the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program. He is the hospital epidemiologist and chair of the infection control committee at the Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley. John is currently on the Pac-12’s COVID-19 advisory board. He frequently appears on television, radio and print media.

U.C. Berkeley Health Services is interested in testing Ignaz in dorms and dining halls to improve students' hand hygiene once the campus is open. 

We are contacting other universities and some companies to pilot Ignaz once the product is ready.

We will provide Ignaz as a service to offices, schools, universities, coffee shops, cafeterias, subway stations, cruises, airports, hospitals and long-term care facilities. We will charge a service fee per seat or per foot traffic.

Businesses and stores can use Ignaz to encourage their employees and patrons to disinfect their hands and wear masks. This will lower the chance of them spreading the germs, brought from outside or picked up inside, in the venues, thus, giving customers peace of mind to come back. Additionally, businesses will save money by lowering the rate of illness among their employees.

Hospitals can save money by using Ignaz to reduce the rate of infection among patients and save billions of dollars spent on treatment.

In addition to funding, we need network, contacts and media exposure to make our solution widely available around the world to slow down pandemics and to save millions of lives lost every year due to Hospital Acquired Infections.

WHO, MDaaS Global, and PATH.org: to offer our solution around the world

UN Environment Programme: to reduce e-waste by reusing old smartphones 

To be self-contained, we repeat the benefits:

1)  A study published in Dec 2019 showed that improving hand hygiene in airports can inhibit a potential pandemic by 24% to 69%. Ignaz offers a great way of increasing hand hygiene at airports and can also increase mask usage to further slow down a potential pandemic. This will buy precious time for scientists to understand a new pathogen and for decision makers to come up with better policies.

2)  WHO estimates that each year hundreds of millions of people are affected by Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) around the world and considers improving hand hygiene an effective solution. Ignaz can improve hand hygiene to save millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars spent on treating HAIs annually.

3)  By reducing infection rate, Ignaz will reduce the amount of antimicrobial drugs used in hospitals. This is one of the objectives in WHO’s “Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance”.

Ignaz is an app that runs on inexpensive Android smartphones (e.g., $25) or used old smartphones. The UN Environment Programme estimates only 16% of e-waste is recycled. Ignaz can reduce the e-waste by reusing old smartphones and can be scaled to solve the above worldwide problems. Ignaz’s reliance on a familiar technology, smartphones, will make its adoption easier.

The Elevate Prize for Health Security will allow us to expand our team to accelerate development and to form partnerships that are necessary to reach a scale that can impact the world.

1)  Ignaz relies on a human to verify the person in a video has performed the task correctly. This allows easily using it for a variety of health related tasks (e.g., scrubbing hands before surgery, following a checklist to perform central line insertion to reduce infection rate in ICUs). This adds to the workload of the admin. Every time a person wins the jackpot, the admin has to view and verify the video. This may not be an issue if the odds of winning is small and for example one out of a thousand coffee shop’s patrons wins the prize. It may become an issue for the admin if the odds are larger and there are several winners every day. To eliminate the extra work, we have to automate the video verification and prize giving steps.

This will make it easier to use Ignaz in a variety of venues and will increase its usage around the world.  

2)  Hospitals are interested in knowing the percentage of tasks performed correctly. Automatically detecting if a complicated task such as scrubbing is performed correctly seems beyond current AI technology capability. We will, however, use machine learning to verify simple tasks (e.g., a person is using the hand sanitizer or wearing a mask) and to set off an alarm if necessary, and to calculate the compliance rate. This will allow hospitals to find areas that require improvement. The developed technology can also be used to automatically increase the reward if the compliance rate is not high enough. While hospitals will be the initial users of this technology, it can also be used in airports, train and subway stations, to monitor mask usage or hand sanitizer usage and find compliance rate. Such data can help public health officials to make informed decisions

These technologies require video or image verification. An AI for Humanity Prize will help us expand our engineering team to speed up the development of the above technologies and to bring them to market faster.

Ignaz will help with the following Sustainable Development Goals:

1)  GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being

2)  GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

To be self-contained, we repeat the benefits:

Ignaz is a technology for increasing hand hygiene and mask usage rates in society. It can slow down the spread of pandemics, especially when used in airports, and lower the transmission rate of a pathogen to make it easier to reach herd immunity through vaccination. Additionally, it can be used in hospitals to save millions of lives lost every year due to Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs). Reducing the rate of HAIs will also decrease the amount of antimicrobial drugs such as antibiotics used in hospitals and is one of the five strategic objectives set by WHO in its “Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance”.

Ignaz is an app that runs on inexpensive Android smartphones or used old smartphones. The UN Environment Programme estimates only 16% of e-waste is recycled. Ignaz can reduce the e-waste by putting old smartphones into good use.

The People’s Prize will help us to:

1) get much needed funding to accelerate development, and

2) raise awareness about our technology through the crowdfunding process. This publicity can help us acquire new users.

To be self-contained, we repeat the benefits:

1)  A study published in Dec 2019 showed that improving hand hygiene in airports can inhibit a potential pandemic by 24% to 69%. Ignaz offers a great way of increasing hand hygiene at airports and can also increase mask usage to further slow down a potential pandemic. This will buy precious time for scientists to understand a new pathogen and for decision makers to come up with better policies.

2)  WHO estimates that each year hundreds of millions of people are affected by Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) around the world and considers improving hand hygiene an effective solution. Ignaz can improve hand hygiene to save millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars spent on treating HAIs annually.

3)  By reducing infection rate, Ignaz will reduce the amount of antimicrobial drugs used in hospitals. This is one of the objectives in WHO’s “Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance”.

Ignaz is an app that runs on inexpensive Android smartphones (e.g., $25) or used old smartphones. The UN Environment Programme estimates only 16% of e-waste is recycled. Ignaz can reduce the e-waste by reusing old smartphones. Thus, Ignaz can be scaled to solve the above worldwide problems. Ignaz’s reliance on a familiar technology (i.e., smartphones) will make its adoption around the world easier.

The Future Planet Capital Prize will allow us to expand our team to accelerate development and to form partnerships that are necessary to reach a scale that can impact the world.