Masimo Begins Rollout of VCAM Hand Hygiene System

Masimo began the limited release of its Visual Clinical Activity Monitoring (VCAM) video analysis system, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate compliance with hospital hand hygiene protocols.
 
VCAM integrates with Masimo’s Hospital Automation platform, including SafetyNet, Replica, and Root, and aims to help healthcare facilities optimize adherence to protocol. It features real-time notifications at point-of-care concerning current hand hygiene status and analytics around protocol compliance.
 
The VCAM solution has the ultimate goal of decreasing incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). VCAM provides notifications on the spot, tracks compliance, and automates reporting. It detects when clinicians wash their hands or use an alcohol-based sanitizer and identifies when they interact with people and objects, and when they touch or pick up an object from a potentially contaminated surface like the floor.
 
The notifications about hygiene status are sent to bedside Root monitors and Replica-equipped smartphones, prompting them to wash or sanitize their hands. VCAM’s reporting offers analysis like the rates of clean vs. dirty incidents to help target workflow improvements.
 
Vijay Dhar, MD, Chief of Neonatology at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), Calif., told the press, “We, at CHOC, are eagerly anticipating the deployment of Masimo VCAM, the innovative artificial intelligence (AI) system that can characterize hand hygiene compliance. We hope VCAM will be able to help us to decrease hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), including viral pathogens such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), bacterial organisms such as MRSA, and other nosocomial organisms responsible for central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI), the most common form of nosocomial infection affecting neonates. With Masimo VCAM helping us maintain hand hygiene, we aim to diminish these totally preventable HAIs and improve the safety and wellbeing of our neonates.”
 
Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of Masimo, added, “VCAM adds an important new tool to the growing Masimo ecosystem of Hospital Automation products, building on our experience developing breakthrough algorithms and next-generation connectivity solutions, to help streamline hospitals’ ability to meet compliance goals with as fundamental and critical a task as hand-washing. VCAM aligns with our continued mission to improve patient outcomes, reduce the cost of care, and ultimately, improve life.”