The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)
By Andrei Victorov
This Conference will Educate you on Disinfection and Sterilization Innovations That Prevent Infection
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) will be hosting a virtual conference on November 10th and 11th, 2022 consisting of educational seminars about the surrounding areas of cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization. These lectures will investigate the challenges, emerging innovations, and solutions to prevent infection. The conference will be beneficial for healthcare professionals and infection preventionists looking to expand their knowledge and advance their careers in infection mitigation. Conference attendees will have access to all of the live-streamed seminars and on-demand education content up until February 28th 2023. This article highlights several topics that will be discussed at the virtual Cleaning, Disinfection, and Sterilization Conference hosted by APIC and provides additional information about them.
The Importance of Written Instructions for Use (IFUs)
Several of the seminars at the conference focus on instructions for use (IFUs). IFU documents provide sterilization and cleaning protocols to ensure safe medical devices and sterile equipment. The documents should contain detailed, action-oriented, steps that are easy to follow allowing for easy to reference instructions for reliable and consistent quality during the sterilization and disinfection processes. IFUs may include the level of disinfection required, the frequency of disinfection, and the maximum amount of a times an item may be disinfected and reused. Prior to deploying IFUs documents, IFUs must adhere to accreditation standards in order to minimize healthcare-associated infections. This requires validating IFU steps and ensuring that the steps are effective in the process. IFUs must maintain integrity as any deviations may impact the health of individuals. A seminar at the conference will discuss areas of improvements regarding reviewing, interpreting, and improving instructions of use as it pertains to endocavity ultrasound probes. An additional lecture will focus on the importance and challenges of IFUs as well as the review process of IFUs for infection preventionist.
Understanding UV-C Disinfection
Ultraviolet-C radiation is a disinfectant for air, water, and nonporous surfaces that can be utilized in healthcare or transportation settings. The technology has been around for decades and is often referred to as germicidal lamps. During the process, UV light devices emit UVC light, typically in the 200 to 280 nm range, which damages nucleic acids of pathogens and ultimately inactivates them. Having long and direct exposure to UVC radiation is a key factor to inactivating pathogens. Preliminary findings by the EPA have determined that UVC light can inactivate SARS-CoV-2; however, additional studies must be done. OhmniLabs, a Silicon Valley based company that focuses on providing robotic solutions for disinfection utilize UVC robots to treat facilities. With autonomous and manual robot options, OhmniLabs provides flexibility to treating and disinfecting environments. The company will be discussing the latest research on ultraviolet-C disinfection and their products at the Cleaning, Disinfection, and Sterilization Conference.
About APIC
Founded in 1972 by a group of infection control nurses, APIC is a private nonprofit organization based out of Arlington, Virginia that is dedicated to the values of infection control and prevention. Now consisting of over 15,000 members ranging from microbiologists to physicians, the goal of the organization is to share advances in science and practices that prevent the spread of infection. By analyzing and interpreting health data, APIC members determine infections trends in order to establish proper scientific based procedures to limit illness transmission. APIC collaborates with public health agencies in order to educate and influence the healthcare industry and general public on proper infection control and prevention.
To register for the conference and for more information, please visit cds.apic.org.
References:
- Association for Professional in Infection Control and Epidemiology
- Cleaning, Disinfection, Sterilization Conference
- Who Are Infection Preventionists?
