Bilateral Meetings
- Monday 14:30 - 18:00
DescriptionOver the last decade, the issue of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) has continuously evolved to a current state of significant growth. As a result, recent attention has been given by Governmental Health Institutions (Direção Geral da Saúde - DGS, Portugal; European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Europe; Centre for Disease Control, United States of America) that, in view of the seriousness and scale of this problem, have implemented specific surveillance programs to collect data on HAI and have issued regulations in this sense, that are of mandatory reporting by Hospital Institutions.
The business opportunity proposed by PathoWatch.med consists of a new service for monitoring foci of infection by pathogens as an instrument to control the rate of hospital-acquired infections. The competitive advantages of the Service proposed here arise mainly from the fact that it provides:
• A regular mapping of the pathogenic agents and a way of directing preventive measures, improving the effectiveness of the control of HI;
• Preventive information with the possibility of triggering prevention mechanisms before HI occurs;
• A tool for Quality control of cleaning methods;
• Institution Certification and Classification regarding the risk of hospital-acquired infections of the Hospital Unit (e.g., "Blue Flag" Hospitals for HI);
• Proof-of-concept in a reputed Hospital Unit (Hospital de Braga, Public-Private Partnership with José de Mello Saúde).
Nowadays, hospital microorganisms’ surveillance is performed in air and water samples, using conventional methods based on Petri Dishes culture or ATP luminescence. The competitive advantages of PathoWatch.med rely on being NGS-based. This method results in the following competitive advantages:
• Faster (two days);
• Ability to detect a broader microorganism spectrum;
• Ability to provide information on antibiotic resistance;
• Ability to map infection outbreaks and direct preventive measures, improving an active and effective HI control;
• Ability to visualize the bacterial strains behaviour through space (hospital ward/focus) and time using an interactive platform that will be specially developed to present the results obtained with this service.
Organization Type
Company
Investment/Financing
We are looking for an initial investment of 5 hundred thousand Euros that will be applied for final testing, including the acquisition of automatization instruments, application to international patents and certification processes.
Cooperation Offered
- Investment/Financing