# Contact Observations from an Intensive Care Unit

## TL;DR

This study collected detailed contact data among healthcare workers in an ICU to better understand interactions and movement patterns.

## Contribution

The study provides a large dataset of contact observations in an ICU, capturing interactions and locations with high granularity.

## Key findings

- Over 15 million contact records were collected over one week in the ICU.
- Contact data included duration and specific locations like sinks, computers, and vitals monitors.
- The dataset is processed into multiple formats to support various types of analysis.

## Abstract

Location and interaction data for workers in a hospital unit are useful for epidemiological research. This article describes a one-week study measuring contacts between healthcare professionals in a medical intensive care unit. Measurements capture the duration of contact, defined as being within six feet (1.8 ± 0.1 meters) distance between instrumented persons or between persons and selected locations throughout the unit. Within each patient room, measurements distinguish between three places: the sink, the computer, and the vitals monitor. Data from the study, approximately 15 million records, are processed into different formats that facilitate analysis.