IT innovation to assist hospitals in reducing the threat of infectious disease

Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Oct 3, 2008 – David Orazietti, MPP announced today that the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) is granting the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC) $142,900 for a 3D hospital geospatial information system being designed and piloted to assist healthcare workers in the management of infectious disease.

“We recognize the importance of supporting the development of this unique system that could help staff manage the spread of infectious diseases at SAH while creating a value-added product for use throughout the healthcare sector,” said David Orazietti, MPP for Sault Ste. Marie. “Today’s announcement is part of our government’s plan to aggressively pursue growing sectors of the new economy to boost local development while attracting and retaining highly skilled workers in Sault Ste. Marie.”

The 3D hospital geospatial information system will help hospitals track and manage the presence of infectious diseases, such as C. difficile. The funded project will see the development of a prototype that will be evaluated by Sault Area Hospital staff and piloted within the hospital facility. The pilot at Sault Area Hospital will track equipment only and validate the integration of the RTLS and GIS technology. Patients and staff will not be tracked in the project at Sault Area Hospital.

By combining real time location system (RTLS) technology and geographic information system (GIS) technology, SSMIC and Infonaut Inc. are creating a system to map hospitals in 3D and ultimately track and analyze the spatial relationships between people, staff and equipment within a healthcare setting.  In the event that the presence of an infectious disease is detected, and with this critical information available in real-time, hospitals could visually see which patients, staff and equipment fall within precaution zones. The final tool would also graphically depict a history of where tracked people and equipment have been within a health facility.  This information can then be analyzed for potential commonalities in areas such as a common bed, floor and more.  This could help healthcare providers reduce the threat of infectious disease while saving time, money and potentially saving lives.

“We are very excited to be working on this project with Infonaut Inc and the potential it brings to the healthcare industry,” said Tom Vair, Executive Director, Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre.  “This health IT innovation will help health stakeholders manage the spread of infectious diseases such as C. difficile.  In the future, we hope that hospitals, long term care facilities and other health facilities will be able to use this system to help support and reduce the potential impact of infectious diseases.”

“There are currently no tools that do what we’re building here.  GIS is widely used in other fields because it’s both intuitive and provides a depth of information.  We’re looking to bring that clean sophistication to healthcare. Disease spreads faster than analog solutions can keep pace.  With GIS and RTLS we can catch up, localize and aim to reduce the threat of infectious disease,” said Niall Wallace, CEO, Infonaut Inc, “We are really excited by the potential of this project, our continued partnership with the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre and our expansion into Northern Ontario.”

This project builds on earlier work utilizing GIS technology to analyze the outbreak of C. difficile at Sault Area Hospital. The original project involved Sault Area Hospital, Algoma Public Health and the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre. Sault Area Hospital has been recognized as a leader in the province on C. difficile management.

The total project value is $300,000 and it is hoped the 3D hospital geospatial information system can become an important tool to combat rising incidents of infectious disease such as C. difficile, MRSA and other superbugs in .

“The Sault Area Hospital is pleased to collaborate on this innovative solution with the Innovation Centre and project partner Infonaut,” said Marc Bouchard, Chief Information and Privacy Officer, Sault Area Hospital. “The project will see the development of what should be an interesting tool that could assist our ongoing efforts in infection control and prevention. It is great to see this type of solution being developed right here in Sault Ste. Marie.”

Beginning last month, all hospitals in Ontario were required to publicly post their C. difficile information on the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s website and immediately report outbreaks to their local public health units. 

-30-