Prototyping and validation of a device to rapidly detect microorganisms for monitoring surface hygiene in the healthcare environment

为了支持NHS预防医疗保健相关感染和危险抗菌素耐药性病原体传播的举措，Eluceda Limited与曼彻斯特大学和曼彻斯特大学NHS基金会信托的感染预防和控制专家合作，旨在推进一种新型设备的开发和验证，该设备可以在医院和医疗保健环境中识别致病菌并量化微生物负荷。提供有关微生物污染的基本知识，以促进短期补救行动和长期医院卫生改善计划。该技术基于最先进的检测技术，能够从医院环境、医护人员的手或仪器的高频接触表面的单个拭子同时分析多种预先指定的微生物。创新的解决方案，包括一个简单易用的药筒和手持阅读器，将是一种自动化测试，以标准化的格式低成本和快速评估环境污染，能够同时识别导致大多数医疗保健相关感染的关键病原体，包括艰难梭菌、铜绿假单胞菌、鲍曼不动杆菌、大肠杆菌和耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌（MRSA）。作为一项环境监测和质量控制测试，加上配套的数据库和分析，医院感染预防和控制团队和专业清洁服务提供商将能够监测消毒产品的有效性和清洁制度的合规性，调查疫情，提高卫生标准，并测试新干预措施的效果，以改善患者安全和资源效率。

To support initiatives across the NHS to prevent healthcare-associated infections and the transmission of dangerous antimicrobial resistant pathogens, Eluceda Limited in collaboration with Infection Prevention and Control experts at the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, aim to advance the development and validation of a novel device which allows pathogenic bacteria to be identified and microbial load quantified in the hospital and healthcare environment, providing essential knowledge about microbial contamination to facilitate short-term remedial actions and long-term hospital hygiene improvement plans.The technology is based on state-of-the-art detection techniques that enable the analysis of multiple pre-specified microorganisms simultaneously from a single swab of a high-frequency touch surface within the hospital environment, healthcare workers hands or instruments. The innovative solution, consisting of a simple to use cartridge and hand-held reader, will be an automated test for low-cost and rapid evaluation of environmental contamination in a standardised format, with the ability to simultaneously identify key pathogens responsible for most healthcare-associated infections, including _Clostridium difficile_, _Pseudomonas aeruginosa_ and _Acinetobacter baumanii, Escherichia coli and_ Methicillin-resistant _Staphylococcus aureus_ (MRSA).As an environmental monitoring and quality control test with supporting database and analytics, hospital infection prevention and control teams and professional cleaning service providers will be able to monitor the effectiveness of disinfection products and cleaning regimes for compliance, investigate outbreaks, improve hygiene standards and test the efficacy of new interventions to improve patient safety and resource efficiency.