Hand cleanliness

1. An apparatus comprising:

a wearable device including:

an electronic sensor configured to be used by a person to detect a cleanliness state of the person's hands,

a storage device coupled to the electronic sensor to store cumulative information about a series of cleanliness measurements performed by the person using the electronic sensor, the cumulative information including data sets, each data set including a time and result of a specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements without necessarily including any association of the time and result of the specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements with a location where the specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements was performed, and

a wireless communication element to transmit, to an external device, the cumulative information about the series of cleanliness measurements.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising:

a monitor having detection circuitry to detect a presence of two or more people in a monitored space and reporting circuitry to report a cleanliness state of hands of the people in the monitored space, based on information provided by one or more sensors used to sense a disinfecting agent on the hands of the people.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the detection circuitry detects the presence of two or more people by wireless communication with a device held on or by the person.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 in which the wireless communication comprises RFID communication.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the monitored space comprises a room in a health care facility.

6. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the sensors are worn by one or more of the people.

7. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the sensors are associated with the monitor.

8. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the sensors sense ethanol.

9. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the cleanliness state is reported with respect to each of the people separately.

10. The apparatus of claim 2 in which the cleanliness state is reported to everyone in the space.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising:

circuitry to count a number of times a person has run a cleanliness test using the electronic sensor.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 also including a communication circuit to communicate the count wirelessly to a reader for reporting to a third party.

13. The apparatus of claim 1

comprising: circuitry to detect and provide an alert when the electronic sensor is nearing the end of its useful life.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 in which the circuitry includes a counter of a number of times the electronic sensor is used.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 in which the electronic sensor comprises an ethanol sensor.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising:

an entry monitor having circuitry to detect when a person enters a monitored space and an indicator perceptible to other people in the space to indicate a cleanliness state of the hands of the person who has entered the space.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 in which the circuitry to detect when a person enters a monitored space includes a wireless communication element.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 in which the indicator comprises a light.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 in which the indicator can indicate a disinfected state and a non-disinfected state.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 in which the indicator is set to indicate a non-disinfected state of the person's hands when the person enters the space, whether or not the person's hands are then in a disinfected state.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 in which the indicator is set to switch to indicate a disinfected state only after the person successfully establishes the disinfected state using a sensor that senses a presence of a disinfectant.

22. The apparatus of claim 20 in which the indicator is set to switch to indicate a disinfected state only after all of the people who have entered the room have successfully established the disinfected state using one or more sensors that sense a presence of a disinfectant.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wearable device also includes a light or sound indicator to indicate to people in the vicinity of the person if the person's skin is not clean.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the electronic sensor comprises an alcohol sensor.

25. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the wearable device also includes a vapor chamber to receive vapor of the disinfecting material and enable the vapor to contact the sensor.

26. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the sensor comprises a heated sensor element.

27. The apparatus of claim 1 also including an element to hold the device on the person.

28. The apparatus of claim 1 also including a circuit to control how long after a level of the disinfecting material that indicates cleanliness has been detected the person's skin is presumed no longer to be clean.

29. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the information comprises a rolling set of data ending at a current time.

30. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the information comprises a history of cleanliness tests performed using the device beginning when the device was first issued.

31. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the information comprises a record of locations in which the tests were performed.

32. The apparatus of claim 1 in which the information comprises a record of which other people were present in the space when each of the tests was performed.

33. The apparatus of claim 16 in which the circuitry obtains, from a device worn by the person, information identifying the person uniquely.

34. A method comprising:

sensing a cleanliness state of a person's hands, and

storing, on a wearable device, cumulative information about a series of cleanliness measurements performed as to sense the cleanliness state of the person's hands, the cumulative information including data sets, each data set including a time and result of a specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements without necessarily including any association of the time and result of the specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements with a location where the specific one of the series of cleanliness measurements where the cleanliness measurement was performed, and

transmitting the cumulative information about the series of cleanliness measurements from the wearable device to an external device.

35. The method of claim 34 , wherein storing information comprises storing a history of cleanliness tests performed using the wearable device beginning when the wearable device was first issued.

36. The method of claim 34 , wherein storing information comprises storing a rolling set of data ending at a current time.

37. The method of claim 34 , wherein storing information comprises storing a record of locations in which the measurements were performed.

38. The method of claim 34 , wherein storing information comprises storing a record of which other people were present when each of the measurements was performed.

39. A method comprising:

storing, on a device that is worn or carried by a person and contains an identifier uniquely associated with the person, a cumulative record of tests performed by the person on a sensor to determine a cleanliness state of the hands of the person at a succession of test times, the cumulative record of tests including data sets, each data set including a time and result of a specific one of the of tests without necessarily including any association of the time and result of the specific one of the tests with a location where the specific one of the tests was performed, and

transmitting the cumulative record of tests from the device that is worn or carried by the person to an external device.

40. The method of claim 39 comprising: providing from the device the identifier.

41. The method of claim 39 comprising:

electronically detecting a disinfecting agent on a person's skin, and

indicating to people in the vicinity of the person if the person's skin is not clean, based on the electronic detecting.

42. The method of claim 41 comprising: indicating if the person's skin is clean, based on the electronic detecting.

43. The method of claim 41 comprising: indicating that the person's skin is not clean based on a passage of time after electronically detecting that the person's skin is clean.

44. The method of claim 41 wherein electronically detecting comprises electronically detecting a vapor of the disinfecting agent.

45. The method of claim 44 comprising: receiving the vapor of the disinfecting agent in a vapor chamber of the device.

46. The method of claim 39 , wherein storing a record of tests on the device that is worn or carried by a person comprises storing a rolling set of data ending at a current time.

47. The method of claim 39 , wherein storing a record of tests on the device that is worn or carried by a person comprises storing a record of which other people were present in the space when each of the tests was performed.

48. The method of claim 39 , wherein storing a record of tests on the device that is worn or carried by a person comprises storing a history of cleanliness tests performed using the device beginning when the device was first used by the person.

49. The method of claim 39 , wherein storing a record of tests on the device that is worn or carried by a person comprises storing a record of locations in which the tests were performed.