Disinfection cotton swab patent that doesn't get on your hand...Nurse Park Kyung-hye shines ideas to improve the inconvenience of medical sites
Jul 03, 2025
The idea of a nurse starting from the minor inconvenience of the medical field is paying off with a patent and taking a meaningful step forward in the medical device field.
Park Kyung-hye, a nurse in the outpatient care team at Bitgoeul Chonnam National University Hospital, registered a design patent on May 12 under the title of 「Povidone iodine cotton swab」. The present invention improves the disadvantages of existing disposable disinfection (povidone) swabs, and greatly improves hygiene and ease of use.
In the general wound disinfection process, disinfectants and cotton swabs must be prepared respectively, and disinfectants are discarded due to hygiene problems after opening. Recently, disposable cotton swabs infused with disinfectants have been used, but there has been a problem that chemical solutions may get on your hands or contaminate your surroundings when opened. Based on such inconvenience at the site, nurse Park devised ▲ a packaging structure that separates the drug solution receiving part and the handle so that the disinfectant does not get on the hand when opening a disposable cotton swab with disinfectant solution on it ▲ convenience of opening including an easy cut line. It also reduced the risk of infection and eliminated the hassle of delivering between medical staff.
"When delivering disinfectant swabs to medical staff during surgery or procedures, it was uncomfortable because the disinfectant was on the handle, and I was always careful because there was a risk of infection," nurse Park said. "It's a small inconvenience, but it's repeated, so I wanted to improve it." he said.
In particular, this patent was made possible because of nurse Park's idea and the help of visiting intellectual property consulting support as part of the 「BioHealth Clinical Site-linked Technology Commercialization Platform Support Project」 conducted by Chonnam National University Hospital Medical Life Research Institute. This project is a system that supports 1:1 customized consulting and patent attorney counseling from abstract ideas to specific invention planning to strengthen health care research and development capabilities. Through this process, nurse Park was able to apply for and register a patent more easily with expert advice and practical support.
"A very exemplary case of creatively solving the unmet needs of the medical field," said Wi Seung-jung, head of the Medical Life Research Institute at Chonnam National University Hospital. "We will continue to actively support the results that are practically helpful in improving the medical field by creating an environment that encourages job inventions in the future." he said.
In addition, nurse Park is not just an idea proposer, but a studying nurse who has been conducting steady research activities in parallel. From 2016 to 2024, she has steadily built up her expertise and research capabilities by publishing a total of eight research papers, six SCI (E) international academic journals and two KCI-listed papers.
"Without hospitals and research support systems, patent registration would not have been easy," nurse Park said. "I want to continue to study practical improvement tasks that will help both patients and medical staff."," he said.
Park Kyung-hye, a nurse in the outpatient care team at Bitgoeul Chonnam National University Hospital, registered a design patent on May 12 under the title of 「Povidone iodine cotton swab」. The present invention improves the disadvantages of existing disposable disinfection (povidone) swabs, and greatly improves hygiene and ease of use.
In the general wound disinfection process, disinfectants and cotton swabs must be prepared respectively, and disinfectants are discarded due to hygiene problems after opening. Recently, disposable cotton swabs infused with disinfectants have been used, but there has been a problem that chemical solutions may get on your hands or contaminate your surroundings when opened. Based on such inconvenience at the site, nurse Park devised ▲ a packaging structure that separates the drug solution receiving part and the handle so that the disinfectant does not get on the hand when opening a disposable cotton swab with disinfectant solution on it ▲ convenience of opening including an easy cut line. It also reduced the risk of infection and eliminated the hassle of delivering between medical staff.
"When delivering disinfectant swabs to medical staff during surgery or procedures, it was uncomfortable because the disinfectant was on the handle, and I was always careful because there was a risk of infection," nurse Park said. "It's a small inconvenience, but it's repeated, so I wanted to improve it." he said.
In particular, this patent was made possible because of nurse Park's idea and the help of visiting intellectual property consulting support as part of the 「BioHealth Clinical Site-linked Technology Commercialization Platform Support Project」 conducted by Chonnam National University Hospital Medical Life Research Institute. This project is a system that supports 1:1 customized consulting and patent attorney counseling from abstract ideas to specific invention planning to strengthen health care research and development capabilities. Through this process, nurse Park was able to apply for and register a patent more easily with expert advice and practical support.
"A very exemplary case of creatively solving the unmet needs of the medical field," said Wi Seung-jung, head of the Medical Life Research Institute at Chonnam National University Hospital. "We will continue to actively support the results that are practically helpful in improving the medical field by creating an environment that encourages job inventions in the future." he said.
In addition, nurse Park is not just an idea proposer, but a studying nurse who has been conducting steady research activities in parallel. From 2016 to 2024, she has steadily built up her expertise and research capabilities by publishing a total of eight research papers, six SCI (E) international academic journals and two KCI-listed papers.
"Without hospitals and research support systems, patent registration would not have been easy," nurse Park said. "I want to continue to study practical improvement tasks that will help both patients and medical staff."," he said.
|
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
