Evaluating the effectiveness of an Ultraviolet-C mobile phone cleaner in the intensive care unit.
The 6th moment of hand hygiene: evaluating the effectiveness of Ultraviolet-C mobile phone sanitisation in the intensive care unit.
The Prince Charles Hospital
30 participants
Mar 17, 2026
Interventional
Conditions
Summary
Mobile phones are ubiquitous in healthcare settings as patients, visitors and healthcare workers use them frequently for work-related and personal purposes. Mobile phones act as significant fomites in healthcare settings, especially in ICU, and may potentially be putting patients at risk of contracting hospital acquired infections. Therefore, solutions specifically tailored to healthcare settings are required for the sanitisation of mobile phones. Despite evidence in favour of UV-C devices for this purpose, there remains a paucity of evidence supporting their effectiveness in real-world clinical environments such as the ICU. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate their contamination pre and post UV-C sanitisation.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria1
- Adult (greater than or equal to 18 years of age) healthcare professional or patients and their visitors within the ICU.
Exclusion Criteria1
- None
Interested in this trial?
Get notified about updates and connect with the research team.
Interventions
This project will investigate if UV-C phone sanitisation is an effective tool to reduce the microbial load of mobile phones within ICU. The mobile phones of healthcare workers, patients, and visitors will be swabbed pre and post UV-C exposure with a mobile phone sanitisation device. The samples will be analysed by agar plate culture and next generation DNA shotgun metagenomic sequencing techniques. Following initial swabbing, a researcher will place mobile phones into a Glissner Cleanphone UV-C mobile phone sanitisation device for 10 seconds duration. This device applies UV-C radiation at a wavelength of 265 – 275nm. The researcher will directly observe the 10 second sanitisation process and remove the mobile phones from the device. The mobile phones will then be re-swabbed post sanitisation. The sanitisation process will be applied once to every mobile phone that is swabbed. This is a pre-post intervention trial, so no randomisation will occur.
Locations(1)
View Full Details on ANZCTR
For the most up-to-date information, visit the official listing.
ACTRN12626000431325