An Israeli medical center will be the world’s first hospital to fully deploy copper-embedded textiles, following a six-month trial that showed significant clinical improvement in patients.

The Reuth Medical Center in Tel Aviv recently announced that it will be updating all of its patient-related hospital textiles to Cupron’s copper-embedded products later this summer.

Cupron – the developer of a proprietary and patented technology that transforms regular products into extraordinary ones – set up two separate trials in the 35-bed head injury ward for six months each. Results showed significant clinical improvement seen across several hospital benchmarks.

“Based on the impressive results of the clinical trial, both in terms of the patient benefit and the potential this technology has to reduce costs, the decision to purchase Cupron’s textiles for use throughout the hospital was clear,” said Dr. Nissim Ohana, Director General of Reuth Medical Center. “Cupron’s copper-based products were a simple solution that didn’t require any additional steps to our normal hospital procedures. It turned out that ordinary products used daily in the hospital could transform to extraordinary ones and provide a safer environment to the patient.”

For centuries, copper has been used as an anti-bacterial agent. Other research studies have shown copper to effectively reduce the incidence of healthcare-associated infections by reducing cross contamination, preventing the colonization of pathogens, and efficaciously killing bacteria on a wide range of touch surfaces.

“Given the need to control healthcare costs, while at the same time improve patient care and safety, the healthcare industry is actively exploring the use of innovative copper-based solutions,” said Paul Rocheleau, Chairman of Cupron. “Because our technology can be embedded into such a diverse range of products including hospital linens, Cupron, and our partners, are able to supply hospitals like Reuth Medical Center with a comprehensive set of products aimed at better protecting their patients and staff.”

Results from the study will be made public at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Berlin.