For the second consecutive year, we had the honor of participating in the Romanian Healthcare Awards 2022, in the “Medical Innovation of the Year” category, with our project “Wolf-e Robotics: Robot-Assisted Disinfection for Surfaces and Air in the Hospital Environment”. The competition took place throughout the months of September to December 2022, and the award ceremony was held on December 16, 2022, at the JW Marriott Grand Hotel in Bucharest.
About Romanian Healthcare Awards
Romanian Healthcare Awards is the first and largest competition with an international jury dedicated to doctors, medical teams, and hospitals in Romania, an event recognizing innovation and excellence in the healthcare field. Its aim is to identify and appreciate examples of best practices in the Romanian medical system, individual and team successes.
About 2022 International Jury
This year, the projects were judged by the 27 members of the international jury – specialists and valuable representatives of the medical system from Romania, Bulgaria, France, the Republic of Moldova, Norway, Belgium, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, who evaluated the applications in the seven categories of the competition (“Medical Team of the Year,” “Hospital of the Year,” “Doctor of the Year,” “Research Project of the Year,” “Medical Innovation of the Year,” “Medical Campaign of the Year,” “Quality of Medical Services and Patient Safety”).
About the Finalists Romanian Healthcare Awards 2022
In the “Medical Innovation of the Year” category, 5 applications were judged. Wolf-e Robotics, a 100% Romanian company, received the Excellence Diploma with the 2022 research project “WOLF-e ROBOTICS: Robot-assisted disinfection for surfaces and air in the hospital environment”. Alongside the other 4 finalists, we appreciated the complexity of all the participating projects – CARDIOSCIENCE with the Dahna integrated digital system for assessing/automonitoring the degree of coronary disease risk and personalized attribution of nutritional therapeutic plans; DDS Diagnostic, with the innovative approaches in treating and controlling patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus project; MediNav, with the MediNav project; Rayscape, with the Rayscape Lung CT project – Automatic detection of pulmonary nodules with artificial intelligence.
How did the Wolf-e Robotics project from the “Medical Innovation of the Year 2022” category start?
2. Underreporting of nosocomial infections in Romanian hospitals. Due to the underreporting of data, the average incidence of healthcare-associated infections – the so-called nosocomial infections – is only 0.53% – 0.63% of the total discharged patients in Romania. The figures are much lower than those reported by the World Health Organization, which states that HAI affects 7% of patients in developed countries and 15% of patients in low- and middle-income countries. In developed countries, 30% of patients in intensive care units (ICUs) have at least one of these infections. Eradicating this type of infection is difficult because their causes are complex: diagnostic methods, care and treatment techniques, age and immune system integrity of patients. Moreover, the increasing microbial resistance to antibiotics amplifies the importance of this problem, with the increased spread of resistant microbes in the community being a trend observed in Europe.
“There are studies that have shown that more than 50% of surfaces can remain untouched by manual cleaning, and during times of crisis, the supply of disinfectants can be interrupted, as demonstrated in the current COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, UVC disinfection is the most effective method. Among devices that use ultraviolet light, disinfection robots represent the most relevant category” – Stefan Toma, CEO of Wolf-e Robotics.
We developed a holistic system: Wolf-e Robotics
Starting with product manufacturing and integrating technological innovations, autonomous and mobile UV robots, smart surface and air disinfection UVC systems, we offer the most efficient methods of deactivating all pathogens. We also created a device management platform that is the backbone of our products, responsible for ensuring personnel safety, streamlining and automating workflows. We then created a mobile application that allows users to view and complete their tasks.
The management platform is integrated into products manufactured under the Wolf-e Robotics brand and can be used independently and adapted to products that the client already has in use. The main implementation area is in the clinical environment – in hospitals in Romania or abroad (operating room, laboratory, ICU, etc.), with effectiveness in any medical department where there is microbial load. By extension, implementation can also be done in schools, kindergartens, HORECA or any space where many people gather/work.
Relevant beneficiaries for 2022: Enayati Medical City, Concierge Medical, Proiectul Școli Sănătoase, Universitatea Politehnică București, Spitalul Municipal Moreni, Spitalul Clinic Județean de Urgență Craiova, Spitalul Pediatrie Pitești, various private dental clinics, etc.
About the originality of the project and medical innovation
The project is innovative and original because it started with manufacturing, integrated technology, and now we can create an integrated national system that functions as a centralized registry. The technology brings 100% traceability of disinfection/cleaning activities and continuous monitoring. It is possible to monitor how many hospitals perform disinfection, the periodicity of the processes, and how nosocomial infection rates are changing. Activities can be standardized, workplace safety is ensured, the performance of cleaning staff and the products used are monitored, and bureaucracy is reduced. The technology brings with it 100% traceability of disinfection/cleaning activities and continuous monitoring.
Extrapolation & Innovation: from the medical to the educational space
Wolf-e Robotics joined in 2022 the unique pilot project in Romania, an interdisciplinary research program aimed at improving the quality of indoor environment in educational buildings. The “Healthy and Efficient Schools” program aims to analyze and implement effective solutions for ensuring indoor air quality. More details about the project can be found here. Within this project, we provide consultancy, offer intelligent equipment for measuring and acquiring indoor physical parameters, devices for air disinfection, long-term measuring sensors with online data acquisition, and implement an online data transmission system.
Wolf-e Robotics’ product range has expanded in the past year and includes:
- Non-autonomous mobile robots for air and surface disinfection (CoBOT-Ultra, CoBOT-Lite)
- Autonomous mobile UV robots for air and surface disinfection (Wolf BOT)
- Real-time platform for monitoring air quality with Wolf Sense sensors
- Devices for air UVC disinfection (which can be used continuously in the presence of people in medical clinics that specialize in family healthcare, as well as clinics that provide dental care, offices in business buildings, or other similar spaces – Aer, Aer 500+, Breez)
- Germicidal UV appliances placed in the upper part of rooms (Beam – which can be 10 times more effective than forced convection disinfection if the space is well ventilated) that can be used in any medical space, kindergarten classrooms, schools, universities, etc.
- Systems for air disinfection in elevators (Lift)
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We are Wolf-e Robotics, and every day we work to support our mission of disinfecting the air and surfaces in the places where we work, learn, and spend our time. Through disinfection with intelligent UVC light equipment and mobile robots, we provide the most efficient and environmentally friendly method of inactivating microorganisms on surfaces and in the air. With applicability in the medical, commercial, transportation, education, and corporate sectors.
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