Hospitals are mandated to train their staff on effective hand hygiene, but this often happens only once a year and does not include individual assessment. In addition, workers’ attention to proper technique tends to lapse over time, as they come into contact with many patients during long and busy shifts. Providing an interactive, easy-to-use solution for regular training, performance measurement and feedback on proper staff hand hygiene is the goal of Irish start-up GLANTA Ltd., with its newly launched mobile SureWash training and assessment unit.

Over the last three decades, Ireland has built a robust medical device community serving large multi-national device companies, built on favorable tax policies and a strong manufacturing and engineering base. But now Ireland is trying to incubate a robust start-up community as well, focused on R&D and innovation, hoping to create the next Medtroniic or Covidien rather than simply serving the current ones.

Rox Medical, which is developing a device to improve the oxygenation of blood, raised $35 million in a Series C round.

Surgen is a joint venture between the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Genset looking to identify genes associated with, and causative of, cardiovascular disease.