Big Brother

With antibiotic-resistant infections and fears of an upcoming pandemic, the issue of hand washing has continued to be pushed to the forefront.

Hospitals have hand cleaners available throughout the building and physicians, visitors and the staff are constantly being reminded about the protocol.

But researchers at Toronto Rehab have gone a step further and supposedly developed a system that can detect whether hospital workers have washed their hands.

The device is a match-box sized system that hangs around the worker's neck or on a belt and beeps if infra-red detectors suspended over patient beds determine the hands are dirty. How this exactly works is unclear.

This device is not fool proof and it seems to have a few problems. For one thing, it sounds like it only detects when a worker has disinfected using special alcohol dispensers included with the system.

A soap and water washing doesn't count, as far as the system is concerned.

It also can't detect if a health care worker has gone near a patient but not touched him or her.

And if the health care workers view it as an annoyance rather than an asset it would be utterly useless over time.

Although we all need reminders, this is probably more problematic and more of a nuisance for health care workers.