Ignaz: a platform for increasing hand hygiene and mask usage rates

Ignaz is a platform for increasing hand hygiene and mask usage rates by offering prizes. In airports, it will slow down global spread of future pandemics. In offices and schools, it will limit local spread of diseases. In hospitals, Ignaz will combat Hospital-Acquired Infections which kill millions of people annually.

Farzan Fallah is the CEO of Idelan Inc. He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and 22 years of work experience in industry and academia.

Our solution, Ignaz, reduces the transmission of pathogens by increasing hand hygiene and mask usage rates. Named after Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis the 19th century Hungarian Physician who discovered washing hands could prevent infections, Ignaz will solve the following problems:

1) The rapid global spread of pandemics, which denies decision makers and scientists the precious time needed to study and better respond to new pathogens and to find cures. When used in airports, Ignaz will slow down the spread of future pandemics by 69% or possibly more. It will make pandemics happen in slow motion.

2) The high local transmission of pathogens, for example in offices, schools and cafeterias, which worsens the effect of pandemics, seasonal colds and flu (which alone kills 290,000-650,000 worldwide every year). Additionally, colds and the flu cost large employers tens of millions of dollars annually.

3) The high rate of Hospital-Acquired Infections which occur hundreds of millions of times in hospitals around the world every year, killing millions of people and costing hospitals tens of billions of dollars on treatment. The large amount of antimicrobial drugs that are used to treat these infections, has created another problem: the antimicrobial resistance.

Ignaz can be used in offices, schools, universities, cafeterias, airports, subway and train stations, cruises, hospitals and nursing homes.

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 the impact of cold and flu on productivity every year.

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.

Low hand hygiene compliance rate in hospitals is a well-known problem and an active topic of research. Since starting working on Ignaz, we have been discussing the idea with healthcare professionals to get their feedback. Once hospitals are less busy, we will conduct pilot studies. Ignaz can also create an incentive for healthcare workers to follow checklists that have been developed for reducing the infection rate when common procedures (e.g., central-line insertion) are performed in ORs and ICUs.

Ignaz’s application in airports was inspired by a study that showed improving hand hygiene in airports can slow down the spread of pandemics by 69%.

We will publish the results of the pilot study in one or more peer-reviewed publications. Additionally, we are going to offer Ignaz at a very low price or even free of charge to underprivileged communities.

In the future, we will provide an API (Application Programming Interface) to allow scientists to develop their own algorithms to conduct experiments using Ignaz. They may even find new applications for Ignaz in public health or other domains we haven’t imagined.

We rely on many years of research that show improving hygiene can prevent diseases [1, 2, 3, 4]. Our solution creates an incentive for people to perform hygiene tasks. Thus, it will reduce the rate of diseases.

We are conducting a pilot study in an office building. We will conduct more pilots in different venues in the future.

Once Ignaz is used in offices and hospitals for a long time, we can quantify its impact on reducing the rate of cold, flu and Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs). Since the mortality rate from HAIs is higher among senior citizens, Ignaz will help hospitals to better care for these vulnerable populations.

Improving hand hygiene in schools reduces gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren, who are a vulnerable group. The absenteeism because of gastrointestinal illness drops by 29-57%, which helps to better educate children. 

Empirically showing that Ignaz slows down the spread of pandemics will take a longer time. At the beginning, we will rely on our models. We will validate the models using seasonal flu. We will compare the spread of flu in areas that use Ignaz with other areas and with historical data to establish Ignaz’s efficacy.

Ignaz is a cloud based app, thus, it is highly scalable. We will offer it at a very low price or even free to hospitals and schools in developing countries if we have enough paying customers in developed countries.

We will start these programs to help developing countries use Ignaz:

1- Partnership with large US companies to reuse phones that they give to their employees (instead of discarding them once they are old). Partnership with the UN Environment Programme to use recycled devices.

2- A donation program so individuals and organizations can buy devices and hand sanitizer for schools and hospitals in underprivileged communities.

To grow our user base, we will use:

1- Traditional advertisement, sales and marketing

2- Partnership

3- A referral program to incentivize users to invite others to use Ignaz.

4- A program to allow celebrities to offer prizes (e.g., meeting the winner online or offline and giving him/her a signed book). These prizes can be used instead of or to complement monetary prizes. Involving celebrities will get us traditional and social media coverage, which will help us in getting new users (Please see the attached document – Section 6).

In the pilot we are conducting, we will measure the hand sanitizer used with and without offering a prize. Many studies have shown improving hand hygiene is an effective way of combating diseases.

Once our system is used in various venues for an extended period of time, we will measure the change in the rate of cold and flu in offices. This can be done by counting sick days that employees take or doctor visits.

Similarly, once Ignaz is used in hospitals for an extended period of time, we can measure the change in the infection rate in hospitals.

The above can show that Ignaz has a positive impact in places it is used. The overall impact of our technology in the world will depend on market penetration. We will measure how much Ignaz penetrates each market (e.g., healthcare, schools, universities, businesses, airports) and its growth rate in various markets and regions. Based on that we will decide how to change our growth strategy.

Next Year:

We need to find a hospital to conduct a pilot study to show Ignaz’s effectiveness in the healthcare environment. US hospitals are currently too busy with the pandemic to conduct a pilot. Thus, we need help in finding a hospital in a country where the pandemic is under control. Ignaz can be used first for visitors and patients and later for healthcare workers.

To continue the work on the product, developing new features, customer support and business development we need funding to hire several full time employees.

Next 3 Years:

Some of the challenges we will face are:

1- Partnering with big tech companies to reuse phones they discard

2- Approaching and convincing celebrities to offer non-monetary prizes

3- Finding an airport to conduct a pilot study and later working with government agencies and public health organizations around the world so Ignaz will be used in major airports.

We hope that through The Trinity Challenge we will be able to find partners and advisors who will help us in overcoming the above barriers.

Idelan Inc.

We need the support and the expertise of individuals and member companies to work with healthcare systems and governments around the world to get airports, hospitals, nursing homes, and schools use Ignaz.

We need help in finding a hospital, in a country which has the pandemic under control, to conduct a pilot study.

We need guidance and expertise on partnering with large companies to reuse their phones and to approach celebrities to donate in-kind prizes.

Finally, we need financial support to hire full time staff to speed up the progress.

Finding early customers for a new technology is always difficult. All Member organizations can help us by using Ignaz in their offices to protect their staff and save money. This will immensely help us in finding other customers.

We are very interested in working with the following Member Organizations:

Johns Hopkins, Cambridge University, HKU, Northeastern University, University of Melbourne, Nanyang Technological University, Tsinghua University: conducting pilot studies in their hospitals or partner hospitals.

Facebook, Google, and Microsoft: discussing the possibility of reusing employer provided old phones instead of discarding them. Additionally, these companies have expertise in rapid scaling and social media (Google owns YouTube and Microsoft owns LinkedIn). We need their expertise to create and grow a platform for involving celebrities.

Facebook and Google: using their Mobility Data

Optum: conducting a pilot in one of their medical units. Also, partnering to offer Ignaz to their customers (i.e., employers and the government) to protect their employees and to save money.

BD: partnering to offer Ignaz to their customers. Ignaz can complement BD’s infection prevention products.

IMHE and Blue Dot: discussing our plan for slowing down the spread of future pandemics and partnering with them to use their predictive technologies/data.