CareMinder: Sensor for the prevention of hospital-acquired infections wins Cantanhede Innovation Days 2024
The winning project aims to help prevent hospital-acquired infections by designing a vibration device to remind healthcare workers to regularly sanitise their hands.
CareMinder is the name of a new project that aims to prevent hospital-acquired infections by developing a sensor that uses vibration to remind healthcare workers to regularly disinfect their hands. The project was declared the winner of the 7th edition of Cantanhede Innovation Days (Cantanhede i-Days), organised by the University of Coimbra (UC) between 30 October and 6 November.
The winning team, made up of students Adebare Adeleke, Arthur Bastos, Beatriz Oliveira and Patrick Carneiro, will represent UC at the Innovation Days (i-Days) final in Budapest, Hungary, on 28 and 29 November. They will also receive a €1,000 prize sponsored by Basinnov Life Sciences, part of the FHC pharmaceutical group.
The i-Days initiative is an annual event organised by the EIT Health Network, involving institutions from 16 countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. Its aim is to challenge students from different academic disciplines to work together to develop innovative solutions to real-world health challenges.
For the 2024 edition of the Cantanhede Innovation Days, the UC student community was challenged to address seven issues faced by healthcare institutions in the central region: remote health monitoring systems for patients, rare disease diagnosis, access to mental healthcare, optimisation of hospital resources, monitoring and prevention of hospital-acquired diseases, decision support systems for healthcare professionals, and improved access to healthcare.
Participants worked together to develop innovative solutions to one of these challenges over the course of one week. They were mentored by researchers, lecturers and health professionals to develop their proposals, and took part in training sessions on innovation, entrepreneurship, pitching and design thinking.
Each group presented their proposals, which were evaluated by a jury made up of representatives from education, innovation, research and health institutions in Coimbra and Cantanhede, at the competition final held at the Stone Museum in Cantanhede.
The Cantanhede i-Days initiative is organised by the R&D International Networks Unit of the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with Biocant, the Centre for Neurosciences and Cell Biology of the UC, the Arcebispo João Crisóstomo Hospital, Rovisco Pais Hospital and the Coimbra Local Health Unit.
More information about the i-Days initiative is available at https://eithealth.eu/programmes/i-days/.
© UC | Karine Paniza