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Human - Centric Indoor Climate for Healthcare Facilities

Project description

Rethinking hospital environments to combat infections

Annually, over four million hospital patients in the EU are plagued by healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), a predicament intensified by the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance. These infections not only exact a financial toll, but also escalate the risk of patient mortality. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the HumanIC project brings together leading academic teams, healthcare facilities, and HVAC industry partners to transform hospital environmental design within the human-centric climate. By advancing our understanding of pathogen dispersion and creating innovative tools and techniques, HumanIC aims to reduce infection risk by at least 30 %, all while enhancing thermal comfort, safety, and energy efficiency.

Objective

Over 4 million hospital patients acquire a healthcare-associated infection (HAI) in the EU each year. Moreover, the global crisis of antimicrobial resistance means that HAI is posing an increasing cost and risk of mortality. There is clear evidence that airflow controls the dispersion and exposure to airborne pathogens and determines the contamination of critical surfaces in the human-centric climate (HCC), which is defined as the microenvironment which surrounds and is close to a human body. This points to a significant need for innovation in healthcare indoor environments to tackle the challenge of infection
control, while improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency in hospitals. To achieve this, we must both advance the fundamental understanding of how people are exposed to airborne pathogens and develop new tools and techniques to enable effective design and operation of healthcare environments. Specifically, there is a need to understand better the local influence of airflows on particles in HCC; quantify the transient behaviour of airflows and contaminants due to healthcare activities like surgery; develop methods for optimising and adapting ventilation systems to control for risks in different environments like operation rooms and isolation rooms; and develop tools to enable real-time interaction with environments during design and operational phases. Bringing together 8 leading academic teams, 4 healthcare facilities and 8 HVAC industry partners, the HumanIC network aims to build a new approach to hospital environmental design through the concept of HCC and the training of 15 Early Career Stage Researchers to address these needs. HumanIC will create and disseminate fundamental and applied science to improve the knowledge base and innovate new technologies for designing and operating hospital ventilation and thermal systems and for reducing infection risk by at least 30%, meanwhile satisfying requirements of thermal comfort, safety and energy.

Coordinator

POLITECHNIKA WARSZAWSKA
Net EU contribution
€ 226 512,00
Address
PLAC POLITECHNIKI 1
00-661 WARSZAWA
Poland

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Region
Makroregion województwo mazowieckie Warszawski stołeczny Miasto Warszawa
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Participants (8)

Partners (9)