Antimicrobial touch screen**

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The outcome of the proposed research should make a contribution to efforts aimed at reducing the survival of bacteria on surfaces. While the persistence of spoilage and pathogenic bacteria on surfaces poses challenges in numerous environments, the focus of this project will be on touch screens that pose a notable threat to human health. There is much coverage of fact that at least 200,000 patients get infections per year while in healthcare facilities in Canada, with an estimated 8,000 who die due to these infections. It is often stated that the majority of common infections are spread by healthcare workers, patients and visitors, and that proper hand hygiene can significantly reduce infection rates. Alarming statistics of e.g., Clostridium difficile related mortalities that have more than tripled over the last two decades, and healthcare-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection rates that increased by more than 1,000%, suggest that factors in addition to those conventionally being targeted should be addressed. We hypothesize that prevalent microbial communities (microbiomes) are site-specific; the microbiome in intensive care units serves as reservoir of resistant microorganisms causing nosocomial infections in critically ill patients, while those of public spaces may be transient and influenced by i.e. the season. The group at Ryerson focuses on approaches to render surfaces antimicrobial, while the industry partner developed a promising technology that involves a transparent screen protector embedded with an antimicrobial agent, and needs Ryerson's expertise to demonstrate the technology under real-world conditions. Touchscreens became a major form of communication and information management - with food processing plants, restaurant menus, and the healthcare environment being a few examples. In order to obtain sufficient samples to allow statistically sound evaluation, we will coordinate with Mt. Sinai hospital to test the technology on mobile phones due to their prevalence in the healthcare environment. Demonstration in this setting will also provide confidence in the technology in other environments where touch-screens became the norm of information transfer.********