SteriPocket

SteriPocket

Inspiration

The Problem Advancements in technology within the past decade have led to a new phenomenon - mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones have become an integral part of our lives and are used wherever we go and whenever we want. This holds true in the healthcare setting with almost all medical, nursing, allied health, and support staff bringing a device to work. Research has shown that phones carry more bacteria than a toilet seat cover but despite a great emphasis on hand hygiene and sterilization processes in the healthcare sector, none seem to address the dirtiest, most contaminated object that one can find in a ward/operating theatre - mobile phones and tablets!

What it does

The Solution Our answer to the problem is a portable ultraviolet (UV) disinfection device for phones. This can be carried around with a belt attachment, neck or shoulder strap hence allowing simple, convenient and quick disinfection of personal phones without disrupting clinical workflow. The aim of our device is to minimize the risk of transmission of dangerous bacteria from phones to hands, despite hand hygiene compliance. Therefore, this allows medical staff to interact with their patients as they currently do but with a decreased risk of spreading hospital-acquired infections. By simplifying the process of hand hygiene when interacting with technologies, medical staff will be able to deliver the best care to their patients.

The Opportunity

The Opportunity The total market size of the global sterilization equipment market is forecast to reach 7.5 Billion USD by 2023. Our solution is a new segment within the hand hygiene market, with no established competitors in clinical use. Our target audiences are hospitals (In 2015-2016, there are 701 public hospitals and 630 private hospitals in Australia), and other healthcare settings including aged care facilities and community psychiatric units. Our users will be all healthcare workers both in hospitals and the community. Our device is applicable for every healthcare worker in a hospital environment; a minimum 500,000 workers in Australia alone.

Challenges we ran into

The Risk Our team is comprised of medical students, a bioengineering student, and a clinician. We lack direct business expertise but we have reached out to the State Government and the University of Tasmania (UTas) for support. We are being mentored in the Tasmania Enterprize startup program, which provides start-ups with business support and education. This programme also provides us with technical support in product design including access to a Maker space for prototyping. We are also supported by the UTas Engineering faculty for mentoring and product development

What we learned/what accomplishments we are proud of

Financials There are multiple options for revenue streams. These include direct to consumer marketing at an estimated cost of $100 AUD or our preferred model of a hospital leasing/service agreement. This is more attractive for hospitals because we would provide ongoing maintenance and training , with less upfront payment for individual devices. This would also ensure higher and more consistent long-term profit. To date we have secured $500 AUD from Enterprize Tasmania for market research. We will participate in the UTas UHack startup competition in October 2018 and will pursue other UTas sources of funding. There are limited research in the current market regarding the role of personal electronic devices use and infection rate due to confounders. Also, there tends to be lag-time from research to systemic change in hospital guideline.

The Competition Surprisingly despite their ubiquity, there are no standard protocols in hospitals in Australia regarding the practical disinfection of personal electronic devices (PEDs) at work. The single competitor in the market is PhoneSoap which relies on a non-portable UV disinfection device that requires a powerpoint to power. There are patented designs of various UV disinfection devices, however, none are in use clinically. SteriPocket is the only solution for this problem that has the features that healthcare workers need - convenience, portability, and effectiveness. There is limited research in the current market regarding the infection risk of personal electronic devices use due to confounders.

Our IP Strategy We will apply for a provisional patent supported by the UTas Business Development & Technology Transfer Offcie and the IP firm Davies, Collison, Cave. Trademarking will protect the name of our product as well as the logo and packaging associated with it. As Steripocket works via the mechanism of UV light sterilization, the way in which it works is not patentable. However our design for a portable UV disinfection device designed to hold PEDs all day is patentable.

Use of Funds $10,000 is required for our preliminary prototyping and safety testing. Once the prototype is refined based on clinical feedback, we will be able to determine a unit cost for a trial production run. Further funding will be required to conduct clinical trials, apply for regulatory approval, and for marketing.

09: Traction Six months were spent analysing our directly observed clinical need at the Royal Hobart Hospital (RHH) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NPICU) and developing our solution. As part of the Tas MedTech Lab program, we obtained clinical feedback about the problem and our solution. The response from the RHH NPICU staff has been very supportive and they would like to sponsor a clinical trial, led by an ICU physician Dr Peter Dargaville. Through the Enterprize Tasmania program our team is performing market research and refining our business plan. We have also commenced prototyping with support from the Maker space.