Infection Control Matters

In another discussion recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference in Bournemouth (UK), Martin and Brett chatted to Dr Annette Jeanes and Prof Jean-Yves Maillard. Annette formerly was the Director of IPC at University College London Hospital NHS Trust, and now works independently. We discuss her time working in the film industry during COVID, and how the varied skillset of an IP practit...

In this episode recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference in Bournemouth (UK), Martin talks to Dr Jon Otter (from Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London), where he is the joint Director of Infection Prevention and Control. We discuss a paper that he gave at the conference on the topic of language and getting the message over. A copy of his excellent presentation complete...

In this first episode recorded at the Infection Prevention Society Conference (Bournemouth, UK) we talk to Dr Holly Slyne about how the Mouth Care Matters programme resulted in a reduction in C. difficile infections by way of reducing healthcare-associated pneumonias and antibiotic use. Holly has kindly shared some resources, please see links below. Following that, Brett, Phil and Martin have a ch...

In this episode, Martin and Brett get views on contact/droplet/airborne transmission from an Engineer (Prof Cath Noakes) and a Physicist (Prof Lidia Morawska). Prof Catherine Noakes OBE is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Building at the University of Leeds. She is a chartered mechanical engineer, with a background in fluid dynamics. Her teaching and research expertise is in building phy...

In this podcast, Phil, Martin and Brett try to summarise the key messages they heard from recent guests discussing contact, droplet and airbourne transmission. What were the key points and similarities? Find out in this podcast.  

In part 4 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a further range of guests on this topics. This week we talk to: Hilary Humphries (Ireland) David Enoch (UK) Jennie Wilson (UK) Michael Borg (Malta) Jon Otter (UK Pierre Parneix (France) If you haven't listened to the previous episodes in the series, please listen to them first.

In part 3 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a range of guests on this topics. This week we talk to: Marjia Juraja (Australia) Egil Lingaas (Norway) Ramon Shaban (Australia) Elaine Cloutman-Green (England) Christine Peters (Scotland) If you haven't listened to the previous two episodes in the series, please listen to them first.

In this podcast, Brett, Phil and Martin discuss the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne. Over the course of the next 3 podcasts, we will briefly talk to a range of people from across the world on their view on this topic. In this podcast, we introduce the topic and hear from our first two guests. The purpose of this podcast is to hear a range of views, with the goal of moving th...

In part 2 of this series on the current IPC paradigms of contact, droplet and airborne, we hear from a range of guests on this topics. This week we talk to: Rhonda Stewart (Australia) Kalisvar Marimuthu (Singapore) Gonzalo Bearman (USA) Belinda Henderson (Australia) Jan Kluytmans (Netherlands) Caroline Marshall (Australia) If you haven't listened to the previous episode (last week), please listen...

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin are joined by Professor Hilary Humphreys of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. They discuss a recent paper that quantifies the impact of TB work on an acute hospital IPC team workload

In this week's podcast, Brett and Phil discuss an article just published in the American Journal of Infection Control titled "Concerns and frustrations about the public reporting of device-related healthcare-associated infections: Perspectives of hospital leaders and staff". The link to the article is here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35948123/ Other papers mentioned in this podcast: Mary Dixo...

In this week's episode Brett and Martin discuss a recent paper from the ESGNI (ESCMID Study Group for Nosocomial Infections) that looks at a survey of environmental sampling practrices in Europe. Are we more confident on our abilities than we should be? As ever, more questions and answers with this one. We also highlight a very useful paper published in JHI a couple of years aso (See below)   ESGN...

In this week's episode, Phil and Martin talk to Bob Garcia, microbiology-trained infection preventionist, about a recent collaborative expert paper published in the American Journal of Infection Control that suggested recommendations about the future of IPC practice. Paper discussed is here: 1. Garcia R, et al. Recommendations for change in infection prevention programs and practice. Am J Infect C...

In this weeks podcast, Brett and Phil discuss an article titled "YouTube and 2022 Monkeypox outbreak: opportunities for awareness and infection control". We discuss the opportunities and challenges of YouTube and social media with regards to infection prevention and control communication and information. Link to the article: Ortiz-Martinez Y, et al. YouTube and 2022 Monkeypox outbreak: opportuniti...

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr David Weber of  Uniiversity Hospitals South Carolina about his hospital's integrated IPC team which includes quality improvement and behaviour specialists as well as the more traditional membership. This discussion was prompted by a recent letter to Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. 1. Weber DJ, et al. A new paradigm for infection prevention pr...

Martin catches up with Phil Russo whilst at the APSIC meeting in Singapore and we discuss a recent paper that has looked at the experiences of IPC Teams in Australia during the pandemic. What went well and what wasn't quite so good. Links to the papers discussed are here. 1. Baswa A, et al. Experience and perspectives of infection prevention staff of the COVID-19 response in Australian hospitals....

In this week's episode, Martin talks to Dr Michael Klompas, Infectious Disease physician, Hospital Epidemiologist, and Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA. We discuss the complexities of undertaking surveillance of Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and the USA approach to looking at the wider issue of Ventilator-associated Ev...

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin talk to Adjunct Assistant Prof Dr Kalisvar Marimuthu, who is currently a senior consultant in Infectious Diseases at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore. We discuss his recent paper that notes that over 50% of transmissions occurring in healthcare result from plasmid and not colonal spread. Traditional IPC inter...

In this week's episode, Brett and Martin caught up with Jon Otter to discuss the 'Glove or no glove' campaign currently being implemented at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals in London UK. Jon has recently blogged about this ( https://reflectionsipc.com/2022/05/04/we-need-to-talk-about-gloves/ ), a blog always worth following if you like to read Jon's thoughts and musings on current issues in IPC.

In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Brett Mitchell about his recent paper that estimates the burden of HCAI from a prevalence study. Papers discussed are: Lydeamore MJ, Mitchell BG, Bucknall T, Cheng AC, Russo PL, Stewardson AJ Burden of five healthcare associated infections in Australia. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control 2022; 11: 69. https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1...

This week's podcast is a live chat recorded in Melbourne in June and features Phil Russo, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan, who discuss whether we think that we are IPC experts (or not). Have a listen and make your own mind up!

A/Professor Deb Friedman is the Deputy Chief Health Officer at the Department of Health Victoria,  Australia. Prior to that she was the Medical Director of infection prevention control and response in Victoria, a key role in Victorias covid response. With an extensive history in infection prevention and control as an infectious diseases  physician Deb has played a vital role in Victoria's COVID re...

In this podcast Phil Russo chats with Dr Sally Roberts, Clinical Head of Microbiology at the Auckland District Health Board, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is also the National Clinical Lead  for the Health Quality & Safety Commission New Zealand Infection Prevention and Control programme and recently led the recent first national point prevalent survey of healthcare associated infections across Aotear...

In this podcast, Brett talks to Dr Gillian Ray-Barruel from the University of Queensland and Griffith University. We talk about Gillian's development of the I-DECIDED tool - decision tool for assessment and management of all invasive devices in the hospital setting. In the podcast, Gillian mentioned she was happy to be contacted. The link to the paper can be found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih...

In this podcast, Martin and Brett talk to Trish Hurst, Belinda Henderson and Dr Patrick Harris about how WGS is being used in two major Australian hospitals. We here about how it started, how is works now and the potential of WGS in real-time for infection control services. The discussion is centred around this pre-print publication: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.02.22273921v1 "C...