New Life-Saving Solution Is the First of Its Kind – and Comes to Market at the Ideal Time
Los Angeles, CA (RestaurantNews.com) The first full week in December each year is National Handwashing Awareness Week, a national advocacy week dedicated to increasing awareness and understanding about the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives. Health and wellness tech company Hand IQ is celebrating National Handwashing Awareness Week, December 6 – 12, by bringing to market a smart handwashing assistant at a time in which handwashing is one of humanity’s best tools for combating the global coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, the number one way to stop deadly diseases like COVID-19 from spreading is to wash or sanitize your hands frequently. Handwashing with soap and water can prevent one in three people from getting sick with diarrhea and one in five people from getting a respiratory illness. Handwashing is especially important at key times such as after using the bathroom, when preparing food, before eating, and after coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose. If everyone routinely washed their hands, 1,000,000 deaths a year could be prevented.
The Hand IQ assistant, which attaches to soap or sanitizing dispensers, uses sensors and Bluetooth technology to anonymously detect an individual’s presence in a shared area, like a bathroom, kitchen, or conference room. It reminds people to wash their hands and guides them through the process of how to thoroughly do that. Hand IQ’s mobile app reinforces team and individual accountability through compliance data dashboards and real-time reporting. And businesses can leverage “clean hands verified by Hand IQ signage and digital marketing materials, which are especially valuable resources for businesses such as restaurants. A recent Datassential study notes “safety trumps everything” when it comes to restaurant re-openings.
“National Handwashing Awareness Week is Hand IQ’s favorite week of the year. Our mission is to save lives by building a culture of clean hands through the global use of our smart handwashing assistant,” says Sean Podvent, Hand IQ’s Founder/CEO. “When we first started developing the technology for hospitals back in 2017, we wanted to find a way to take something mundane like handwashing and make it fun. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we’ve been focusing on bringing our tool to the industry segment that needs it most right now: restaurants.”
The spread of germs from the hands of food workers to food is the most common cause of foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants. Each year, 48 million Americans become sick from foodborne illness. The cost of a single foodborne illness outbreak at a fast-casual establishment could cost up to $2.1 million. America’s food industry has a $55.5 billion food safety problem. Almost 90% of foodborne illnesses in restaurants could be prevented with proper handwashing. Hand IQ offers a high-tech, low-cost solution for restaurants and businesses to signal their commitment to the safety of both their customers and their employees, and to continue raising awareness about the importance of handwashing–not just during National Handwashing Awareness Week, but every day of the year.
Hand IQ is in pilot tests and discussions with Kitchen United Mix, Del Taco, and other undisclosed quick service and fast-casual restaurant chains. The smart handwashing assistant is also suitable for healthcare, retail environments and the consumer home. Hand IQ is now accepting orders for the devices, which will ship in volume starting in the first quarter of 2021.
Hand IQ, a health and wellness tech company based in Los Angeles, CA, has created the world’s first smart handwashing assistant – a device that attaches to soap or sanitizing dispensers to ensure healthy handwashing habits, verify clean hands in shared spaces, and improve overall health and wellness in businesses, communities and homes. Hand IQ’s mission is to save lives by building a culture of clean hands through the global use of our device. An initial 2018 pilot with AdventHealth, a 46-hospital system, improved handwashing compliance from 83% to 99.8% over a five-month period and earned the company a system-wide clinical innovation award. Learn more about Hand IQ.
Media contact:
Whitney Davis
Executive Director of Communications
whitney@handiq.com
626-222-1277
