Adverse Event is an incident that causes unintended harm to a patient due to medical care, frequently caused by a lack of knowledge of pre-existing conditions. In Brazil, it kills 26 people every hour.They rank among the leading causes of death nationwide - more than all homicides or cancer types combined.The same is true around the world.Annually, there are more than 2.6 million deaths and 134 million incidents that result in unintended damage from healthcare. 

Patients and healthcare organizations have tried to create identification systems to communicate pre-existing conditions and diseases.But these systems are not standardized.For example, at some hospitals, the green bracelet indicates a patient with latex allergy; in others, it stands for blood disorders.Patients also invest in their identification, even going as far as tattooing their condition.But this is done without following a recognized standard by paramedics, doctors, and nurses, which ends up having little or no effect. 

The National Patient Safety Program was launched on April 1, 2013, by the Brazilian Ministry of Health and ANVISA, and proposes measures to prevent and reduce adverse events. Together with other countries, Brazil makes up the World Alliance for Patient Safety, established by the WHO in 2004. The main proposal is to institute measures that increase patient safety through a political commitment of the signatories.

However, recent studies show that the incidence of adverse events in the country is 7.6% high. Among these, 66% are preventable, placing Brazil ahead of New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and France in proportion to incidents like these. In other words, the engagement of the government and health organizations has not reduced the number of deaths. Patient safety has always been an issue addressed from the door into hospitals. That’s why IDverse is also engaging patients to help to save their own lives.

IDverse is the first and only universal, scalable, open-source, cost-reducing, easy-to-use, and easy-to-read identification system that promotes patient safety.  That both patients and hospitals can use to help healthcare professionals save lives. Each symbol represents a pre-exiting condition. The symbols were designed to be applied on any surface, from identification bracelets to patient tattoos. The intelligence behind the design allows for new symbols to be created as needed. And also, overcomes language barriers protecting people around the world.

For IDverse to be compelling, it is necessary to engage all stakeholders in the patient's journey, including patients themselves. That is why we started to disseminate the symbols on two different fronts: brands and patients, what we are calling the door-outside-hospital strategy, and health professionals that we are calling the door-to-hospital strategy. For this, we engage brands such as gyms, products for personal use to make the symbols available for patients to use. And we are also implementing the symbols in the day-to-day life of hospitals in conjunction with continuing medical education. Another essential health sector that we are working on is the rescue services, the paramedics trained to recognize the symbols and inform the hospital at the beginning of the service.

In just one month, IDverse already has 9 partners implementing the symbols: a large gym network already uses the symbols on members' personal objects, such as water bottles and locker keys. A renowned Brazilian bank is already implementing the symbols on its credit cards. A jewelry store is creating pendants with the symbols, and tattoo artists received instructions for the best execution of lifesaving tattoos. On another front, implementation of training for doctors, paramedics, and intensivists has already begun. And a large hospital network is analyzing how to implement the IDverse in their units by the end of the year.

It’s hard to measure the immediate results because it is not a traditional media campaign or traditional brand activation, it also involves patient data and confidential information. In addition, the best result would be to prevent deaths from adverse events, something that is difficult to audit at the moment. In other words, any new patient safety protocol takes years to be 100% implemented. But in just one month of implementation, we already have 9 partners among brands and health institutions that impact a network that can reach 17 thousand healthcare professionals and 6.5 million people.