We are delighted to announce that the PREVENT research project was present within Romania’s National Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo! The project aims to develop an advanced cyber-physical system for preventing both singular cases as well as outbreaks of hospital acquired infection. The project is a joint effort between Info World Ltd, Politehnica University of Bucharest, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași and the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest.

The system comprises a wireless sensor network capable of precise, real-time indoor localization of persons together with monitoring important hygiene-related actions such as hand disinfection, equipping gloves or other personal protective equipment or the contact between medical professionals and patients. Data is sent to a software server that employs advanced algorithms to determine the risk of an infection being transmitted. In such a case, a real-time alert is sent to the involved practitioner(s), giving them the possibility to take the required corrective action. Concretely, the following components were developed, integrated, and tested as part of the project:

• A wireless sensor network with the capability to carry out precise indoor localization at room level together with detecting certain well-defined events (such as using a waste bin, operating a faucet, or utilizing certain equipment and so on).
• Setting up a communication protocol between the equipment and the system’s software server.
• Software tooling that allows defining and configuring the behavioral rules that are enforced for infection prevention. These must be reusable to allow them to be configured by medical personnel without intervention from the project team.
• A business rules engine that monitors the way infection prevention rules are observed within the monitored location and which triggers real-time alerts when an infection risk is detected.
• Software components that allow building and managing the contact network and risk maps that are driven by the data received from the wireless sensor network.

As part of Dubai World Expo, researchers from the Politehnica University of Bucharest set up a project presentation stand within Romania’s National Pavilion which illustrates how the system works within a fictional clinical unit.

Persons within the clinical location are monitored in real time through the SEWIO RTLS indoor localization technology. When two or more persons come into contact, as shown by the red ellipses within the video, the contact network is updated on the software server. The usage of soap or disinfectant dispensers, gloves or other equipment is monitored in real time; in case an infection risk appears, the system triggers a real-time alert. Localization data is also employed for building risk maps that allow epidemiologists to analyze people flow within the monitored location and discover key areas that might act as hubs for infection outbreaks.

Localization data and the history of actions carried out by monitored persons are stored and processed according to existing legislation, ensuring data security and the right to privacy.