Pardon the interruption...

Photo: Society of Robots

There's a front-page article in this morning's New York Times on computer vision systems. The article discusses many different uses of computer vision, such as surveillance monitoring in prisons, but also describes applications in health care. Of interest to those of us in infection prevention is the capability for a computer to watch a healthcare worker interact with a patient and remind him when hand hygiene should have been performed. In the model in use at Bassett Medical Center, when the computer notes a missed opportunity for hand hygiene, it says, "Pardon the interruption. Please wash your hands." So for those hospitals that really want to drive hand hygiene compliance to high levels, here's a new high-tech, Big Brother option.