INTERNET OF THINGS-ASSISTED LORAWAN-ENABLED HAND HYGIENE MONITORING AND TRACKING SYSTEM FOR PREVENTING COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA AND HEALTHCARE-ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS

Abstract

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a primary concern in critical care units, dialysis centers, and nursing stations. Practicing Alcohol-Based Hand Hygiene (ABH) is predicted to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Recent technological breakthroughs in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Long Range communication (LoRa) protocols provide cutting-edge solutions to reduce HAIs, particularly community and hospital-acquired pneumonia. This research uses an IoT-enabled LoRa network to monitor and track hand hygiene practices to avoid pneumonia and other HAI infections. The ABH dispenser can recognize the subjects, activate the hand sanitizer, permit the subject admission, and record hand-washing activities to a server powered by an NVIDIA Jetson Nano Graphical Processing Unit computer. All the data, with a user ID and GPS location, is deployed in a cloud server and an application server for storage and display and relayed to a LoRa gateway using the ESP32 IoT platform equipped with a LoRaWAN and short-range Bluetooth Low Energy. A series of field tests was conducted in various hospital buildings and simulated scenarios. Real-world LoRa network situations have brought an overall success rate of 92%, whereas laboratory testing has an overall success rate of 98%. As individuals grew more conscious of the need for personal and institutional hygiene during the Covid-19 pandemic, the frequency of HAIs increased. The IoT-enabled intelligent ABH network is a cost-effective infection prevention and control mechanism, and it reduces pneumonia, HAI rate, and stress of healthcare workers and critical care unit patients.