HandInScan won the Gran Prize for its innovative technology

HandInScan and its revolutionary hand hygiene system won the Gran Prize founded by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary on May 20th 2016 at the annual gala of the chamber.

The Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary, SCCH was established in 1995. In order to support its members’ business operation, the Chamber maintains economic, environmental, innovative, educational and cultural activities. The general purpose of the Chamber is to promote and contribute to the development of trade and business relations and business related initiatives and activities between Hungary and Sweden and to support knowledge transfer.

Gran Prize 2016 award ceremony. Right: H.E. Mr. Niclas Trouvé, Ambassador to Hungary; Left: Tamas Haidegger, co-founder, HandInScan

In 2012, the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary (SCCH) established a prize to stimulate innovative thinking aimed at improving the quality of life. The SCCH chose a popular Swedish symbol, the pine tree, as the emblem of the prize. GRAN in Swedish means pine tree, pointing to the characteristics of this award, as focused on sustainable development and environmental protection. The prize is in response to the most pressing issues of our planet, annually awarding outstanding, innovative solutions and projects in the area of environmental protection, sustainable development, design, medicine, health preservation and development, as well as education.

This year, the members of the judging panel could not decide between two projects, so based on a unanimous decision, two winners was announced. The two Gran Prize award winner projects in 2016 are the Semmelweis Scanner device developed by the HandInScan team and a new method for diagnose malaria developed by Dr. Istvan Kesmarki and his team.

Bringing together the heritage of Semmelweis and modern technology, the HandInScan team developed a digitally system for the direct and objective evaluation of hand hygiene technique. “Through education and monitoring, our innovative technology can support the prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections. Lowering the number of infections decrease the costs of hospitalization and generally improve the quality of life.”– said Dr. Tamás Haidegger, co-founder of HandInScan.

The hand hygiene system, named Semmelweis Scanner, enables immediate evaluation of hand hygiene by detecting the distribution of a special handrub. The objectivity – which is critical in the fight against HAI – is accomplished by the software evaluation of recorded images. The system was validated on over 17,000 healthcare workers and used in 17 countries.

At the annual gala organized on May 20th 2016, the winners of the Gran Prize award was honored with prize money and with a Gran Prize sculpture, created by the Swedish artist, Anna Lundin and Karoly Szasz.

“Year after year, the Gran Prize initiative has more and more serious place in our society. A special actuality for the winner is the anniversary of Ignaz Semmelweis’ death celebrated recently. We hope that not only the academic word, but also the business sector will notice it.” – emphasized János Takács, president of The Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hungary.

Further information: www.handinscan.com