The World Health Organization (WHO) has mentioned the paper "The use of Smart Environments and Robots for Infection Prevention Control: a systematic literature reviewLink opens in a new window" by Piaggio et al. (2023) in its latest Global Research and Innovation for Health Emergencies report. The report, which was released on October 10, 2023, highlights the most important and promising research and innovation on infection prevention and control (IPC).

Our paper, co-authored by Dr Davide Piaggio, Marianna Zarro, Dr Silvio Pagliara, Martina Andellini, Abdulaziz Almuhini, Dr Alessia Maccaro, and Prof Leandro Pecchia, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the art in the use of smart environments and robots for IPC, highlighting the potential benefits of these technologies for reducing the risk of infection in healthcare settings, including the improvement of hand hygiene and personal protective equipment compliance, the automatic detection of infection clusters, and a more effective cleaning of the environments. This paper also noted that current IPC practices within hospitals mostly do not rely on automation and robotic technology, and that few advancements have been made in this field, emphasizing the need to increase awareness of these technologies among healthcare workers and to involve them in their design process, as well as to find alternative adequate, appropriate, affordable, accessible, and available solutions for lower-resource settings.

The mention of our paper in the WHO's Global Research and Innovation report is a significant achievement for our group and a testament to the quality of the research being performed at the School of Engineering at Warwick University.

For more information, you can find the paper here: https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(23)00109-8/fulltext