Hyginex bracelet for doctors and nurses. Photo: Hyginex.

Working to decrease the risk of infections in hospitals, an Israeli startup has developed a bracelet for doctors and nurses that measures the effectiveness and frequency of hand washing.

The bracelet collects information wirelessly through sensors attached to soap machines in the hospital and sends the data to hospital managers.  Poor hand hygiene leads to nearly 100,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

How consistent doctors and nurses are at washing their hands is measured by the bracelet, designed by a Herzliya based company known as Hyginex, by determining whether or not proper scrubbing is being undertaken by the hospital employees.  The duration of the hand washing is also taken into account by the bracelet, before sending the collected data to managers.

Hyginex was started in 2008 by a woman named Efrat Raichman, after her uncle passed away due to an infection he contracted while in the hospital.  The technology is already in use at Israel’s Rambam Medical Center.