Irish technology and leading European hospital show how a smart hospital can reduce hospital infections

We are proud to be involved with this project, along with SureWash (Ireland).

Efforts to combat hospital “super bugs” highlighted during World Antibiotic Awareness Week

Two Irish medical technology companies, SureWash and MEG Support Tools, have collaborated with the global hand hygiene company GOJO and one of the leading cancer hospitals in the UK, The Christie in Manchester, to demonstrate how “smart hospital” technology can reduce infections without the need for lots of extra personnel.  A recent outbreak of CPE (carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae) in Irish hospitals indicated the seriousness of this issue, with a mortality rate of 40-50% recorded among infected patients.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) say that good hand hygiene can prevent up to 50% of infections in hospitals.  Preventing infections is critical as these so called “super bugs” are resistant to antibiotics and have a high mortality rate.

Speaking at the start of World Antibiotic Awareness Week, Kerrill Thornhill of MEG Support Tools said; “A multimodal approach to improving hygiene standards is critical in combating hospital acquired infections and the reliance on antibiotics.  We are working with SureWash to reduce rates of infection and improve the lives of people across the healthcare system.” 

The WHO provide guidelines on when to do hand hygiene (the 5 moments) and on how to do hand hygiene (the 6 poses).  But validated training and auditing of these guidelines is very resource intensive and sometimes overlooked.  The research carried out was published by the American Journal of Infection Control. Results indicated that integrated digital tools can provide both rich data and novel tools that both measure impact and provide feedback to support the implementation of multimodal hand hygiene campaigns.

The infection control team in the Christie Hospital describe how live data from the MEG audit app, the SureWash interactive training kiosk and GOJO’s SMARTLINK™ dispenser system was combined to create a live data dashboard to facilitate better infection risk management.  Analytics were run on the live data to provide actionable feedback to both staff and patients if the standards of hand hygiene practice were slipping.

Patients and their families have a key role to play in infection prevention. However, there are few if any resources available to training patients in clinical infection prevention.  During the study, patients were encouraged to learn about hand hygiene using gesture recognition and camera based algorithm technology which teaches them correct hand hygiene technique – 70% of the training episodes were by patients helping them to maintain infection control for wound care post-discharge.

At the annual Infection Prevention Society award in Manchester in September, SureWash & MEG Support Tools also received industry awards voted on by delegates from hospitals across the UK and Ireland.

For more information or interviews, please contact:

SureWash / Glanta Ltd:  Dr. Gerry Lacey, info@surewash.com, +353 87 2396567

MEG Support Tools:  Kerrill Thornhill,  info@megsupporttools.com, +353 87 9349516

Video Link: https://youtu.be/DJsYRstYTjs

Link to research paper: http://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(17)31048-9/fulltext

About Us:

 MEG Support Tools

MEG Support Tools enables frontline medical workers to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative workloads by creating mobile first, paperless tools that promote access to information, antimicrobial stewardship and improved reporting in hospitals.

SureWash

SureWash uses camera based vision systems to teach proper hand hygiene technique. By taking learning out of the classroom and direct to where it is needed most, the units or wards, SureWash can help reduce training costs whilst not interrupting workflows. SureWash systems come with a full analytic and reporting suite giving hospitals the tools they need to manage their infection control risk and achieve regulatory compliance.

World Antibiotic Awareness Week, 13-19 November 2017

Today begins the World Health Organisation (WHO) directed 'World Antibiotic Awareness Week'.

Antimicrobial resistance happens when microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites) change when they are exposed to antimicrobial drugs (such as antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals, antimalarials, and anthelmintics).  Microorganisms that develop antimicrobial resistance are sometimes referred to as “superbugs”.  As a result, the medicines become ineffective and infections persist in the body, increasing the risk of spread to others.  The WHO say that good hand hygiene can prevent up to 50% of infections in hospitals.  Preventing infections is critical as super bugs that are resistant to antibiotics and have a high mortality rate.  For example, the most recent outbreak of CPE (carbapenemase-producing enterobacteriaceae) in Irish hospitals has a mortality rate of 40-50%.

MEG Support Tools, have collaborated with the global hand hygiene company GOJO and SureWash along with one of the leading cancer hospitals in Europe, The Christie in Manchester, to demonstrate how ‘smart hospital’ technology can reduce these infections without the need for extra personnel. 

The infection control team in the Christie Hospital describe how live data from the MEG audit app, the SureWash interactive training kiosk and GOJO’s SMARTLINK™ dispenser system was combined to create a live data dashboard to facilitate better infection risk management. Analytics were generated on the live data to provide actionable feedback to both staff and patients if the standards of hand hygiene practice were slipping.

The results indicate that integrated digital tools can provide rich data that measure impact and provide feedback to support the implementation of multimodal hand hygiene campaigns, reducing the need for significant additional personnel resources.

If you'd like to read further, more details are available online from the American Journal of Infection Control here.

MEG Support Tools enable frontline medical workers to spend more time with patients and less time with administrative workloads by creating mobile first, paperless tools that promote access to information, antimicrobial stewardship and improved reporting in hospitals.  If you think this is something that your hospital would benefit from, contact Kerrill on;

 087 394 9516 

Health Innovation Week 20-25th October

Health Innovation Week is a series of interactive events that encourage creation, learning and collaboration by showcasing the innovations that have the power to transform the Irish healthcare system and build a better health service.

eHealth Ireland, with their partners, will host these free events to inspire all of us to make sense of the challenges that we face in healthcare. It doesn't matter if you are a clinician, a researcher, a service user or a student - there is something for everyone.

Monday the 23rd willl feature The Innovation Showcase and will demonstrate the progress in the creation of a digital fabric that is transforming the Irish healthcare system. eHealth Ireland will take over the Printworks for a special one- day exhibition, presentations and series of workshops to reveal highlights of eHealth projects in Ireland and showcase the leading digital and connected technologies, which will revolutionise Irish healthcare by 2030.

Our Founder / CEO Kerrill will be there to field any questions from clients and clinicians and will also be sitting on panel dicsussion on Monday 23rd October.  If you'd like any further information get in touch;

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info@megsupporttools.com // 01 679 1597 // www.megsupporttools.com

Med in Ireland

This Thursday the 19th October, MEG Support Tools will be exhibiting at Med in Ireland, the Enterprise Ireland event to showcase Irish companies in the medical technologies sector.  This event will feature a conference, exhibitions and partnering meetings.  Our Founder, Kerrill, is unfortunately fully booked for one-on-one sessions but please call to stand 38 if you'd like to hear more about our software solutions.

We are looking forward to meeting some of the international visitors to the event and hearing from industry leaders.

If you'd like any further information about this event, please contact us at info@megsupporttools.com | 01 687 1579 | Kerrill Thornhill https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrillthornhill/

NEW | Build your Own Audits

We've had a busy year in MEG Support tools, setting up simple to use hygiene auditing systems for hospitals across the UK and Ireland.

We've recently added the new HIQA HAI, Antimicrobial Stewardship and VTE Risk assessment audits to the system alongside our existing Hand Hygiene 5 Moment, Care Bundles and IPS Quality Improvement Tools.   As most of our client are looking to adapt audits to their local requirement, we have added a new, 'Create your own Audits'  tool.   Get in touch and we can arrange a demo or free trial. 

Contact us at info@megsupporttools.com or 01 697 1579

Looking for Technical Support?

While some people are permanently attached to their phones, we understand that downloading and using apps is not an interpretive process for everyone. At MEG we develop our auditing apps to work on iPhone and Andriod phones / tablets (i.e. Samsung or Windows brands) which means you'll be downloading our apps from the iTunes store or Google Play stores depending on your device.

If you're already lost, we have created some quick start info videos to help you download and start auditing. We have also covered a number of other practical user related topics, such as 'recording and submitting a MEG hand hygiene audit' and 'creating a QIP with the MEG HIQA environment audit app'. If you want to start from the beginning, we suggest our video on how to 'login to the MEG audit app'.

You can access all of our help videos via the link below;

MEG's How to Videos

And if you have any technical support needs you can reach us here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
info@medicaleguides.com | +35301 697 1579

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Infection Prevention Society Member

We are delighted to announce our membership with the Infection Prevention Society whos mission is to promote and inform infection prevention techniques within healthcare, stopping the risk of preventable infections to patients.

At MEG we are also promoting infection free places of health with our medical auditing tools which form part of the feedback loop of helping prevent bugs and disease. We are also helping to address the going paperless directive - making auditing easy and trackable.

If you have any queries about any of our services, please contact Kerrill at +353 87 934 9516.

MEG - Winner of IIA Dot ie Net Visionary Award

Our MEG  platform for delivering medical apps won the award for ‘Best Mobile Service or App for Fast Moving Businesses’ (B2B) at the IIA Dot ie Net Visionary Awards on the 26th of September.  The award is a great recognition of the efforts of all our team to provide an efficient mobile solution to our clients, letting them access their clinical practice guides and guideline information anywhere, at any time: http://www.medicaleguides.com/

The experienced panel of judges spent a number of weeks deliberating over a range categories, and the ceremony took place on September 26th in the Smock Alley Banquet Hall. The awards were a huge success with a great turn out from the Irish software and digital technology community, you can check out the rest of the winners here.

The recent case in Spain of a healthcare worker contracting Ebola while caring for a patient demonstrated the risks healthcare workers take while trying to save the lives of others. Professor Peter Piot of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who first discovered Ebola in 1976, stated that the biggest risk of contracting Ebola in Europe is for medical staff.

The Wall Street Journal recently spoke to Professor David J. Evans, professor of virology at the University of Warwick and detailed  the importance of following Ebola protocols

'The bulk of available evidence suggests that basic infection-control measures like protective gear that eliminate contact with the skin or fluids are sufficient to contain transmission.But a single lapse in procedure—removing successive layers of surgical gloves in the wrong order, for example— can expose a nurse or doctor to infection. It’s clear that something has gone wrong either in the direct exposure of the patient to an unprotected health-care worker or in the practices the health-care worker was using,' said David J. Evans, professor of virology at the University of Warwick in the U.K. on the Spanish case.

MEG Support Tools have developed the Ebola guidelines app specifically for healthcare workers to provide them with the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines which are designed to keep them safe while treating patients with (suspected) Ebola.

Amongst other areas, it details what isolation techniques are required, how heathcare workers should don and remove Personal Protection Equipment and how contaminated waste should be managed.  Being well versed on these protocols is critical as a single lapse can lead to contracting Ebola.

The app is available now on the Google Android store and will be released in a few days on the Apple app store.

Notes: Used with permission from The Wall Street Journal, WSJ.com. Copyright 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

SVUH National Liver Unit Launch

The National Liver Unit at St Vincents University Hospital provides a hepatology consult service for the entire country and this week launched an app containing guidelines for the management of liver disease.

The Medical EGuides (MEG) system provides a way for clinicians to deliver their guidelines, protocols and clinical practice guides to staff members and the public on their own mobile devices. Access to this information at the point of care provides immediate guidance and helps to improve patient outcomes.

There is an hepatology consultant and registrar on call 24 hours a day, 7 days per week and they transplant approximately 60 patients per year. This app is designed to provide basic advice on initial investigations, diagnosis and management of the most common presentations of liver disease, and details on the referral pathways to have your patient reviewed. Like the frontline care workers, the app is also available 24 hours / 7 days a week!

Download the app now: Android and iPhone