In a clinical lab, cross-contamination risk is invisible until it isn't — and by then, the chain of custody that would explain it is gone. This document assesses the feasibility of an automated system that enforces hand-washing protocol between instrument pickups: detecting when a technician handles instrument A, starting a time window, and flagging a violation if instrument B is picked up without a wash event in between. The assessment covers sensor architecture, the specific hard problems in multi-technician environments, regulatory context, and a concrete build sequence. By the end, a reader will know whether this system is buildable, what the genuine risks are, and what to resolve before breaking ground.
Several parameters in this analysis are design assumptions, not confirmed requirements. These are flagged explicitly throughout. The system architecture is sound under each assumption, but the assumptions themselves should be validated before committing to implementation.