NEW DELHI: Observe Design, a startup from Stanford-India Biodesign, is launching an innovative wearable medical device called Hansure to fight MERS and other contagious infections, on the occasion of the Global Hand Hygiene Day (May 5) - an initiative by the World Health Organization.

The deadly MERS virus is spiralling out of control with over 111 reported dead and the virus rapidly spreading to other countries with the newest case reported in the US. The worst affected are the ones taking care of others - healthcare professionals, mainly doctors.

J. Eric Dietz, director of US-based Purdue Homeland Security Institute, says that the smartest thing for people to do in situations of outbreaks is to take precautions, such as washing hands regularly and wiping surfaces with anti-bacterial or chlorine. Hansure simplifies the process of hand hygiene, allowing its users to keep their hands sanitized at all times. The device can be easily worn over any attire and provides all-time access to the hand disinfectant through a simple single hand action. The premium electronic version of the device is able to monitor how frequently you sanitize your hands and can intimate you automatically in given time periods or upon being in contact with another person through its intelligent human proximity sensing technology.

Although originally intended for healthcare professionals, Hansure is a must-have for frequent travellers, food-handlers, and residents of areas facing risk of contagious infections. The CDC recommends frequent hand cleaning as the most effective measure against contagious infections for all travellers. With some of the most deadly infections originating from animals, proper hand hygiene also becomes imperative for people working with or near animals.

Hansure is an outcome of several months of fieldwork with healthcare professionals at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and extensive research within Stanford-India Biodesign. "Our team spent several weeks observing healthcare workers to identify the difficulties that they face to follow the hand hygiene guidelines," explains Agyeya Dwivedi, the clinical person in the Observe Design team.

Healthcare workers need to disinfect their hands before and after attending to every patient, every time. "We quickly realized that the guidelines are impossible to follow in practice and the hand hygiene process needs to be simplified," says Saurabh Bag, the industrial designer behind Hansure. The project received funding for research from Johnson and Johnson and seed funding was facilitated by Czech ICT Alliance.

The wearable device is able to carry a hand disinfectant in the form of disposable cartridges, ensuring all-time access to the hand disinfectant at the point of patient care. The product ensures that no opportunity for hand hygiene is ever missed in the healthcare settings. It is also a great immediate response tool for travellers or people living in areas with occurrence of MERS or any contagious infection.

"With Hansure, we want to fight MERS and other contagious diseases in the worst affected parts of the world. As our support to the Global Hand Hygiene day, we are providing hundreds of free products to healthcare professionals who register through our website at www.hansure.co. The product will be commercially available to others very soon," claims Aanan Khurma, Chief Executive Officer of Observe Design.

About Observe Design:

Observe Design is a medical device innovation company founded by alumni of Stanford-India Biodesign with the vision to address the pressing healthcare challenges of the society. The company ideology is to identify the unmet needs of the healthcare system through keen observation and then solve the identified problems through user centered design.

The multi-disciplinary team of Observe Design is mentored by experts from various institutions including AIIMS, IIM-A, IITs, South Moravian Innovation Center, Czech ICT Alliance and SID-Pune.

Find more information at www.observedesign.in.

Media Contact: Aanan Khurma, aanankhurma@observedesign.in, +91-9910086341, CEO, Observe Design