Health IT, Hospitals, Startups

Digital health startup using hand hygiene tool to reduce HAI raises nearly $10M

SwipeSense graduated from Healthbox, which has invested in the business along with Jumpstart.

SwipeSense has raised $9.7 million, according to a Form D filing, as the push to improve hand hygiene to combat hospital acquired infections continues to gather momentum. The company has 23 investors, according to the filing, and follows a $1.7 million fundraise last year.

The company declined to comment on the fundraise.

The Chicago-based company’s device was inspired by the founders’ observations of people wiping their hands on their pants when their hands were dirty. The device is designed to be wearable, personal, portable hand-sanitizer dispenser that attaches to scrubs so healthcare professionals can disinfect their hands at any time.

It includes a few different components. A wearable dispenser with recyclable gel cartridges dishes out a hand cleanser. Another records each time the dispenser is used through a badge worn by the staff member. There are also wall mounted hygiene dispensers fitted with a sensor that capture data on the staff member’s usage and transmits it to the user’s badge. Another component uses sensors in patients rooms to determine which patients rooms the user applies the hand hygiene (or doesn’t use it).

SwipeSense claims that hand hygiene increases 64 percent in hospitals that have used its device.

The company graduated from Healthbox, which has invested in the business along with Jumpstart. It was also a finalist in The Wall Street Journal’s startup of the year competition in 2013.

Mert Iseri, the CEO and co-founder, previously co-founded Design for America. earlier this year Iseri, 26 and his co-founder Yuri Malina, 24, were named in Forbes list of 30 social entrepreneurs under 30 years old.

Several different startups have developed their own approach to getting hospital staff to scrub up. UK-based Pure Hold developed a concept of a door handle that dispenses cleansing gel was the

Large, established companies have come up with their own technologies to bring better handwashing practices to the broader public. Procter & Gamble’s personal care brand Safeguard developed an obnoxious soap dispenser alarm triggered by sensors connected to the dispensers and doors when someone tries to leave the public bathroom without washing.

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