PROJECT: PANIC BUTTON HACK
Challenge: During the 2019 Azure IoT Hackathon, my team focused on leveraging Azure IoT technology to create a connected panic button for hospital rooms to improve nurse safety. The statistics and costs of assault on healthcare workers is alarming; healthcare workers suffer 50% of all workplace assaults. We wanted to create a safer environment for those who are dedicated to improving and saving lives.
Currently, panic buttons in hospitals are ineffective for multiple reasons:
They are too far away for a nurse to be able to reach the button in time to call for help.
The battery has failed, but no one is checking the batteries to make sure the buttons are always working.
The button isn’t labeled, so nurses may not even know it is a panic button depending on the design.
The button is mapped to the incorrect room, and so the security team goes to the wrong location when help is requested.
The buttons are difficult to push, or require multiple buttons to be pressed at the same time.
Process: After brainstorming what the user journey should be, we set to work on hacking with different pieces of the Azure IoT portfolio and came out with this solution:
This solution allowed us to solve key issues with the current panic button system today: it was voice activated, to make sure a nurse could trigger it from any point in the room, the battery level was reported to an operator team monitoring the devices, and the button would send its correct location, making sure that the security team would show up in the correct location.
Results: Our team made it to the top 10 projects selected by the Azure IoT leadership team. Check out our video and demo below.