Lucideon and King’s ‘magic touch’ for hospital infection control
Collaboration develops new infection control method to tackle problems associated with digital technology in hospitals
Lucideon has developed a new infection control method to tackle problems associated with digital technology in hospitals.
Scientists at the company have collaborated with Dr Paul Royall and Avneet Uppal at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at King’s College London to develop an antimicrobial coating for portable communication devices.
The technology has been developed to cut the risk of cross infection from tablet devices and smart phones, which are increasingly being used by healthcare professionals in the workplace.
It provides a crack-free and transparent antimicrobial coating that offers excellent adhesion to the glass surface of handheld devices.
Gemma Budd, Lucideon’s business manager for Healthcare, said: “Often people don’t think about the cross infection issues of mobile devices, but it’s a cause of considerable concern.
“It’s a really exciting development, which could have a profound effect on the control and management of hospital-acquired infections.
“We are focused on solving the issue of increased infections and antibiotic resistance – and this project marks a significant step towards achieving that goal.
“The success of the project could mean the system can eventually be rolled out to many other applications, including medical implants, dental devices, surgical instruments and packaging.”
The technology developed is based on Lucideon’s inorganic controlled release platform.
Lucideon is currently mid-way through a ground-breaking project, ReBioStent, which involves then co-ordinating an initiative to develop new biomaterials and arterial stents. The project is supported by over €5m from the European Union.
Other projects being developed for the healthcare industry include Lucideon’s inorganic controlled release technologies for abuse deterrent drug delivery to solve the rising global epidemic of prescription drug abuse.
Novel biomaterials, including toughened ceramics and ceramic:polymer hybrids, are also being developed for bone repair/replacements, some of which are only possible due to Lucideon’s pioneering application of Field Enhanced Processing technology.