Electronic Health Reporter

Hyginex is a patented wearable hand hygiene improvement technology that is saving patient lives by preventing the spread of healthcare associated infections that cause nearly 100,000 deaths in the U.S. annually. The patented arm-based system provides real-time feedback to help staff remember to wash their hands and also collects highly accurate data on both duration and frequency of hand hygiene events.

Elevator pitch

Hyginex is a patented wearable information technology that generates big data to drive change and save lives in the healthcare industry.

Founders’ story

Hyginex was founded when Efrat Raichman lost her uncle to a healthcare associated infection (HAIs). After researching the problem further, she realized better hand hygiene was key to preventing these terrible infections and that there was no technology solution available on the market. She developed the Hyginex system, the first electronic hand hygiene improvement and monitoring technology to save patient lives and help hospitals improve their hand hygiene culture.

Marketing/promotion strategy

Hyginex reaches customers through conferences, tradeshows, webinars, email marketing and social media. Hyginex is also developing strategic partnerships with thought leaders and patient advocacy organizations to increase public awareness of the importance of hand hygiene for patient safety.

Market opportunity

Currently the main method of collecting data on hand hygiene events is manual observation, which involves an individual manually recording every time staff members do or do not clean their hands. Hospitals are required to submit this data to regulatory bodies, and manual observations can be highly time-consuming and inaccurate. The Hyginex system provides a technology solution to efficiently collect accurate data on hand hygiene.

Our main competitor is badge-based technologies that do not solve the full hand hygiene problem because they can only capture data on frequency of hand hygiene events and can be inaccurate.

Other competitors include algorithm-based technologies, that only estimate hand hygiene events based on soap/alcohol consumption and neither capture data individually nor provide feedback to help employees change behavior.

How your company differentiates itself from the competitors

The Hyginex system is the only technology that addresses the full hand hygiene problem by helping improve both duration and frequency of hand hygiene events. Both these elements are important to killing harmful bacteria and can only be accurately monitored with an arm-based technology. Our patented armbands and wristbands also provide real-time reminders to staff to drive positive behavior change.

Business model

Hyginex sells directly to hospitals and also through regional distributors.

Current needs

Hyginex recently closed its A Round of funding and will be opening Series B in mid-2014. Hyginex is currently also expanding its customer base.

Founded

2008

Number of full-time employees

10

Headquarters

Los Angeles, CA, USA