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Infectious Ideas: Using Antimicrobial Copper Alloys in Hospitals,
by Alice Ro
In addition to your Copper touch concept,
we could envision a system in which patient would automatically receive Video/Text messages (health advice about sanitizing information) on their cellphone as soon as the patient enter the hospital.
(to avoid spam there would be an unsubscribe link on the message..)
Look at the Dyson air blade, it makes people want to dry their hands after washing because to do so is fun and a joy. In the same way product design can increase hand washing in hospitals. I think the biggest problem is that hospital staff are so damn busy and have so much going on they forget. - it is not a priority for them to wash reguraly.
David, you are spot on that it is out of the designers hands. Although I appreciate the branding to increase sanitation, behavior change is the real challenge here.
It is a stretch by any means to consider this single sentence as a call for culture change, especially in a 2,000 word article. And adding more sanitizers raised compliance only by a few percentage points. Nurses are stuck at 40%, docs at 30%. The greatest product in the world won't change that rate, it is something out of the designer's hands.
The author goes on to talk about bundles, combinations of things to lower HAIs. But again, ironically, Pronovost's book will attest that making a bundle is worthless without the culture change to adhere to the bundle. It won't work if people aren't going to follow the bundle.
Of the over 250 alloys registered with the EPA, many are very tarnish resistant. Silver nickel (actually doesn't contain any silver metal) and copper nickel are very tarnish resistant because of the nickel content, and their strength and hardness can rival some steels.
The solution lies in designing a product that changes the HAI culture in hospitals today.
It may be true that there are copper alloys which don't cause this affect, but they probably are not antimicrobial. The reason copper is antimicrobial is because its such a strong reducing agent. It breaks down biomolecules to kill bacteria, and makes things stink.
(http://knowledge.ls3p.com/2009/09/09/copperbrass-surfaces-are-natural-disinfectants/)
There's also further research going on at the Medical University of South Carolina (http://www.musc.edu/pr/copper.htm)
I'd be curious to see renderings of this system after it's gotten a patina. I'd like to hear more about the copper alloys that resist tarnishing, as it seems like this will be a key factor for implementation. While it looks great on a roof, tarnished copper simply doesn't 'look clean' and as a result likely creates a significant barrier to adoption.