Irish robotics company Akara teams up with Estonian hospital for pilot project

Irish robotics company Akara has teamed up with Estonia’s largest healthcare provider for a pilot project using the start-up’s technology in Tartu University Hospital.

The partnership will be the first time Akara’s software has been used in a live deployment outside of a test site in Ireland. As part of the collaboration, workers at the hospital will begin using a software application to digitally log cleaning tasks in real time,

The Trinity College spin-out has developed a platform to autonomously disinfect hospitals and healthcare settings, with fully autonomous disinfection robots carrying out air and surface decontamination in clinical settings.

“Disinfectants and robust cleaning procedures are critical in healthcare settings to prevent cross contamination, disease outbreak, and hospital-acquired infections. At Tartu we are committed to exploring innovative solutions to make our hospital practices more efficient for patients,” said Triin Arujõe, Head of Environment and Cleaning Department, and Tiina Teder, Quality Manager of Environment and Cleaning Department, Infection Control Nurse at Tartu University Hospital. “Akara’s scalable cleaning solution is innovative, creative and environmentally friendly. We look forward to trialling this software to assist hospital staff in the cleaning and disinfection process.”

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Akara signed a memorandum of understanding after the two entities were matched through EIT Health’s accelerator programme held earlier this year, Start-ups Meet Healthcare Providers. The challenge based accelerator programme connects high-potential start-ups to public and private hospitals in Europe.

“Participating on this EIT Health programme afforded us the opportunity to develop a relationship with a target hospital and potential user of our core technology,” said Conor McGinn, CEO at Akara.

“Insights gained from Tartu University Hospital stakeholders helped inform key elements of our business model and go-to-market strategy. Tartu is regarded a research and innovation powerhouse in Europe, so we are proud to have since signed an MoU to begin a trial of our technology within the hospital.”

Akara is targeting a healthcare market where approximately 8.9 million healthcare associated infections occur in European hospitals and long-term care facilities each year, and up to 70 per cent could be prevented by improving disinfection and hygiene practices.

“Covid-19 has brought healthcare environmental hygiene into focus, however thousands of clinical hours are lost every day waiting for hospital rooms to be decontaminated,” said Graham Armitage, interim managing director at EIT Health Ireland-UK.

“At EIT Health we support start-ups that innovate to optimise the patient experience. Akara’s futuristic software has capability to reduce patient wait times, improve transparency associated with clinical disinfection, and alleviate pressure on cleaning staff by eliminating paperwork.”