# A wearable sensor system for hand hygiene compliance tracking

> **NIH NIH R44** · MICROSENSOR LABS, LLC · 2020 · $739,365

## Abstract

Project Summary
This Small Business Innovation Research Fast Track project aims to develop a wearable sensor system for
hand hygiene compliance tracking and validate its efficacy through a pilot trial in clinical settings. Healthcare-
Associated Infections (HAIs) are the most common type of complication for patients who are
hospitalized. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2011 there were an estimated
721,800 HAIs in U.S. acute care hospitals that led to about 75,000 deaths and more than $20 billion in
healthcare costs per year. The most effective strategy to improve hand-hygiene compliance includes
monitoring hand-hygiene behaviors and, in turn, implementing performance-based interventions. Today, nearly
all hospitals worldwide are still relying on direct observation to monitor healthcare providers’ hand hygiene
compliance, which is not only costly, labor-intensive, time consuming, inaccurate due to observer bias, but also
inadequate since this technique only captures a small sample size of all hand hygiene opportunities. Therefore
there is a vast market demand for electronic hand hygiene surveillance systems that can monitor providers’
hand hygiene compliance automatically and continuously. In this research, we will 1) first develop a minimum
viable product of the sensor system and assess its performance in lab settings; 2) conduct a 12-month
crossover, randomized pilot study to test the performance of the sensor system in clinical settings and 3)
develop a minimal marketable product for commercialization. We expect the proposed research to improve the
hand hygiene practices and compliance rate of healthcare providers and ultimately reduce healthcare
associated infection rate.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9973047
- **Project number:** 5R44AG060848-03
- **Recipient organization:** MICROSENSOR LABS, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Peng Paul Liu
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $739,365
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-30 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9973047

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9973047, A wearable sensor system for hand hygiene compliance tracking (5R44AG060848-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9973047. Licensed CC0.

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