Blackberry mulls a germ-free smartphone

The average smartphone may contain thousands of germs but that could soon change as the Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry is planning to develop a bacteria-free phone, specifically for use in hospitals.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen said workers in the healthcare industry will have one less thing to worry about to wipe clean with the planned bacteria-free smartphone.

Several previous studies have analysed how many germs live on devices such as smartphones with some of them concluding that the devices harbour more bacteria than a toilet seat, Global News reported.

A study by the University of Surrey in UK found most of the bacteria found on smartphone are harmless but occasionally disease causing bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus are found.

However, doctors' phones could be exposed to a wider variety of bacteria in a hospital, the report said. Dr Aviv Gladman from MackenzieRichmond HillHospital in Canada said employees are instructed to wipe their phones with alcohol swabs before entering and exiting a patient's room.

In a bid to win over the healthcare sector, BlackBerry has signed partnerships with Cisco Systems and ThoughtWire to provide doctors and nurses at the Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital with a portable alert and messaging system.

The company has agreed to provide software and devices to create a clinical notification and alert system for doctors and nurses.