Hospital Acquired Infection Training with Wearable Technology in the Air Force

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are types of infections a patient can get at healthcare facilities while they are getting treated from unrelated conditions. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that there were an estimated 687,000 HAIs with 72,000 associated deaths in the US alone, in 2015. HAIs can happen regardless of the setting of the healthcare facility and they are often hidden from public attention. The Air Force healthcare system along with other civilian healthcare systems are not immune to the adverse effects of the HAIs. Even though surveillance systems and preventative measures have been established, it’s still difficult to identify and reduce HAIs due to the complexity and site-specific challenges involved. Hence, it’s critical to determine the healthcare center specific bottlenecks and develop customized solution frameworks to reduced HAIs at different institutions. The proposed work aims to identify these location specific pain points within the Air Force Healthcare system and provide customized training approaches that are based on the Avkin’s wearable simulation technologies to potentially reduce HAIs.