Becker's Hospital Review

74 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Researchers are working on tech to monitor handwashing in hospitals 24/7 By Megan Knowles P hysicians and computer scientists are installing depth sensors and various monitors in hospital hallways, near patients' bedsides and in operating rooms to monitor staff 24/7 and improve hand hygiene compliance, e Wall Street Journal reports. Seven things to know: 1. e sensors produce video images resem- bling blurry silhouettes to protect patient privacy, but can train computer algorithms to identify movements, such as a staff member stopping to use a hand sanitizer dispenser. e technology, called computer vision, would allow hospitals to monitor workers 24/7 across an entire hospital ward. e re- searchers aim to use the data from the algo- rithms to influence staff behaviors and re- think how they administer care. 2. Even the most attentive physicians and nurses may be unaware when they skip steps in care, particularly when that can involve hundreds of small tasks in a day, said Arnold Milstein, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Clinical Excellence Research Center at Stanford (Calif.) University. To address this issue, Dr. Milstein and his colleagues created a series of pilot studies to determine whether computer vision could tell if staff used hand sanitizer dispensers be- fore entering and leaving patient rooms. 3. e researchers installed sensors above the hand-sanitizer dispensers in a hallway of an acute-care ward at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. ey col- lected thousands of images and annotated about 80 percent of them, noting whether someone did or did not sanitize their hands when entering or leaving a patient's room. 4. e researchers fed the annotated images into an algorithm to teach it to distinguish whether someone was washing hands. ey used the remaining images to see whether the algorithm could identify handwashing without using the annotations. 5. e algorithm was then applied to imag- es gathered at an intensive care unit of Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare. Although the hospital's hallway was different than the other hospital's, the algorithm iden- tified hand sanitization roughly 85 percent of the time. When the algorithm was further trained on images Intermountain Healthcare captured, its accuracy jumped to 98 percent, Serena Yeung, a PhD student in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, told WSJ. 6. Now, the researchers are determining how the data can be used to promote vigilance in handwashing. One idea includes having an alert on the sanitizer dispensers to remind staff to wash their hands before entering patient rooms. Another idea is to design a digital dash- board to track compliance across the unit. "People would know how they are perform- ing as a group and hopefully be motivated to improve," Ms. Yeung said. She suggested training programs or rewards for units with the best compliance records. 7. Additionally, researchers aim to use comput- er vision to study handwashing protocols inside patient rooms to determine whether current practices, such as washing hands aer touching a patient, are effectively fighting harmful bacte- ria or if different steps should be considered. n AAMC: DO school enrollment up 163% since 2002 By Alyssa Rege F irst-year medical school enrollment has increased 29 percent since the 2002-03 school year, according to a recent report released by the Association of Amer- ican Medical Colleges. The report, entitled "Results of the 2017 AAMC Survey of Medical School Enrollment Plans," aims to examine the number and trends in the matriculation of first-year medi- cal school students during the past 10 years and projects first-year matriculation through 2025. The report is based on the results of the 14th annual Survey of Medical School Enrollment Plans, which was administered to the deans of 149 U.S. medical schools accredited by the Liaison Com- mittee on Medical Education in November 2017. Respondents were asked to provide information on their school's first-year matriculants and anticipate the number of matriculants for the next five years. The survey also in- cluded questions regarding industry concerns, including graduate medical education placements and diversity. Here are five findings from the report: 1. In response to a potential physician shortage, the AAMC recommended a 30 percent increase in first-year medical school students by the 2015-16 academic year. Survey re- sults indicate the 30 percent goal will be reached by the 2018-19 school year. 2. Forty-four percent of medical schools reported concern about their incoming students' abilities to find residency positions after completing medical school. 3. Eighty-five percent of respondents expressed concern regarding competition from DO schools and other health professional programs regarding the number of available clinical training sites. More than half (54 percent) of medi- cal schools reported feeling competition specifically from DO schools, while 58 percent said they felt pressure from other healthcare professional programs. 4. Nearly all respondents (99 percent) indicated they have or were planning to create specific programs or policies related to diversity. 5. DO schools saw 8,088 students enroll as first-year stu- dents for the 2017-18 academic year, a 163 percent in- crease from the 2002-03 academic year. n

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