Controlling the transmission of infections isn’t one person’s job and it can’t be measured with a few key performance indicators. It’s breaking down barriers to allow for collaboration between all interested parties. And that’s exactly what’s being done at the Healthcare Infection Transmission System (HITS) Conference this September 18-20th in Nashville, TN.
Today I’m joined by Dr. Christine Greene, Principal Research Investigator for the Sanitation and Contamination Control unit of the Applied Research Center at NSF International and Dr. Kelly Reynolds, Professor and Chair of the Community, Environment and Policy Department at the College of Public Health, and Director of the Environment, Exposure Science and Risk Assessment Center at the University of Arizona. We discuss the challenges and opportunities in infection control and prevention as well as get a sneak peek of what’s to come at this year’s HITS Conference. Enjoy!
NOTE: Find extensive coverage from The #HCBiz Show! on Infection Prevention and Control
0:00 Aligning infection prevention and control with business reality.
3:13 Introducing Dr. Christine Greene and Dr. Kelly Reynolds
3:51 Background: How does HITS use their understanding of what impacts the survival and movement of microorganisms to reduce infection rates?
6:15 What’s the ROI for getting infections under control in your business?
9:22 The 2017 HITS conference worked with attendees to find key focus areas in infection control. How did people work together and what did the groups find?
12:20 Sentiment analysis, word clouds, and attendee feedback helped design this year’s working groups, which include:
- Air Transmission
- Hospital Construction and Design
- Hand Hygiene
- New Innovation Adaption
- Risk Assessment
- Surface Transmission: Floors
- Surface Transmission: Genomics
- Water Transmission
15:20 Each of the 8 groups continues to work towards progress throughout the year.
16:26 How clean should a hospital be? The math to find quantitative cleaning goals.
18:46 All work groups will be presenting at fall conference. You can find updates on the HITS Consortium website and newsletter and InfectionControl.tips. Next step is research funding.
21:35 Do you want to reduce healthcare acquired infections? Product companies, monitoring companies, private practices and hospitals now have a way to help! Engage with HITS and get involved!
24:30 What’s new for 2018? Expanding HITS networking platform, exhibit hall, new products, talking with industry leaders and academics, poster sessions, lightning talks and more!
28:52 Infection prevention, EVS, facilities management, scientists, and industry suppliers will all benefit from attending! HITS is still accepting sponsors!
32:00 Who are this year’s speakers? More than 20 experts from around the world!
38:29 Our sponsors are internationally recognized for their commitment, leadership, and passion for controlling and preventing infections world-wide. When we all come together, we become the catalyst for change.
This September step forward and join the HITS Consortium. Choose to make a difference in your field. Be part of the Catalyst for Change! HITS 2018 Conference
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About Christine Greene, MPH, PhD 
Principal Research Investigator at NSF International
Dr. Greene is the Principal Research Investigator for the Sanitation and Contamination Control unit of the Applied Research Center at NSF International. She has over 10 years of experience in epidemiological and laboratory research. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences and an MPH in Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her academic research focus has been on healthcare pathogen transmission, pathogen environmental survival, hand hygiene, disinfection and biofilms which has led to multiple publications. At NSF International, Dr. Greene has been making strides to improve public health in the areas of infectious disease prevention and control in clinical, dental and community settings. Her work serves to improve the accuracy of environmental mediated infectious disease transmission modelling, strengthens current guidelines to control healthcare-associated infections and provides new insights that will stimulate innovative approaches to reduce the risk of biofilm-related infections, pathogen transmission and curtail the environmental persistence and transmission of infectious agents. Dr. Greene is a member of the NSF International 444 Joint Committee Standard – Prevention of Injury and Disease Associated with Building Water Systems and serves on the ISO TC 304 working group 3 as the project leader for the healthcare hand hygiene performance and compliance standard. She serves as a board member for The Infection Prevention Strategy. Dr. Greene is a co-founder of the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems (HITS) Consortium – an organization that strives to break down silos in healthcare using a cross-disciplinary, systems approach to addressing the pressing issues around infection control.
About Kelly A. Reynolds, PhD
Associate Professor at the University of Arizona
Dr. Reynolds is a Professor and Chair of the Community, Environment and Policy Department at the College of Public Health, and Director of the Environment, Exposure Science and Risk Assessment Center at the University of Arizona. She has over 30 years of experience in academia- specializing in tracking pathogen movement in healthcare environments and evolving predictive risk assessment models for determining pathogen spread, human exposure potentials, adverse health impacts and intervention efficacy. Dr. Reynolds has served as a principal investigator on numerous projects and published over 375 journal articles, book chapters and professional reports. In the last year, her work was featured in over 50 popular media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post. Most recently she co-founded the HITS (Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems) Consortium, utilizing her expertise in integrating academic research teams with medical personnel, clinical diagnostic laboratories, patients, industries and other stakeholders for a multidisciplinary approach toward research, communication and management efforts in infection prevention.
Additional information: https://publichealth.arizona.edu/directory/kelly-reynolds
About the Healthcare Infection Transmission Systems (HITS) Consortium
The Healthcare Infection Transmission System Consortium is a not-for-profit organization serving the field of infection control and prevention. HITS takes a holistic perspective to targeting healthcare associated infections by including multiple disciplines in the conversation, including infection prevention, environmental services, construction and renovation, facilities management and engineering along with research scientists and industry experts. HITS focuses on the major avenues for pathogen transmission in hospitals: hands, surfaces, water and air. HITS provides the necessary, cross-disciplinary platform to share knowledge and engage in research regarding the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and promotion of overall hospital health.
About The HITS 2018 Conference
The HITS 2018 Conference will be held on September 18-20th in Nashville, TN. HITS 2018 offers a unique forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and promoting “hospital health”. The 2018 HITS “Catalyst for Change” Conference is a working conference, bringing together research scientists, industry and healthcare professionals for an interdisciplinary and dynamic approach. We work together to understand and prevent the transmission of pathogens throughout the hospital facility through a collaborative effort that includes engaging in applied research. The conference is accredited as a provider for continuing education units (CEUs) through National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE). Join us for this one-of-a-kind, multimodal event where researchers and experts from across disciplines will work toward identifying research gaps and applying data-driven methods in the field. Meet, greet and share ideas with the individuals and organizations who are growing and sustaining the industry as we explore creative and innovative solutions to this global problem. The full 2018 schedule can be found at https://hitsconsortium.org/2018-nashville/2018-schedule/
The HITS organizing committee has assembled world experts and key opinion leaders to share their knowledge and expertise. We host a research poster session to hear from those in healthcare about the research being conducted in their facilities. We also incorporate workshop breakout sessions each day in order to provide a unique forum through which everyone can interact and be innovative as we work to identify potential solutions to key barriers and develop an agenda for change moving forward into the next year. After the conference, members have the opportunity to become involved in one of the many research workgroups conducting research around pathogen transmission in healthcare.
Check out highlights from the HITS 2017 conference: https://hitsconsortium.org/2017-hits-highlight-reel/
For media inquiries: https://hitsconsortium.org/media/
For more information, please visit the HITS Consortium website: https://hitsconsortium.org/ or email us: info@HITSconsortium.org
Register now!
Related and/or Mentioned on the Show
More on Infection Prevention and Control from The #HCBiz Show!
Infection Prevention and Control with Niall Wallace and Michael Diamond
Using Barrier Technology to Stop the Spread of Infectious Disease – Rik Heller
Why Hand Hygiene Matters – Tamás Haidegger
Shining a Light on C. diff – Christian John Lillis
Redefining Sepsis | Michael Ackerman
Understanding Infectious Agents in the Environment | Dr. Syed Sattar and Bahram Zargar
The Patient Hot Zone | Darrel Hicks
Legionella: A Manageable Risk for Health Systems | Dave Purkiss and Joseph Cotruvo | Legionella 2018
HITS 2017 Conference Preview with Dr Christine Greene and Dr. Kelly Reynolds
HIMSS18: Dr. Lucas Schulz | UW Health & ILÚM Health Solutions – We chat with Dr. Lucas Schulz, infectious disease and critical care pharmacist at University of Wisconsin Health. Luke is also an adviser to ILÚM Health Solutions – An infectious disease (ID) platform and real-time information service. We cover antimicrobial stewardship, clinical decision support & more.
The Infection Prevention Strategy (TIPS) – The Infection Prevention Strategy is a registered non-profit. We have created a model of information sharing that makes the process of vetting new technologies, implementing successful programs and inspiring innovation more efficient, more accessible, more global and more collaborative. Our global teams are driven by the firm belief that we should not have to wait years for promising innovations, ideas and processes to be implemented and accepted. Around the world, our teams develop trials and conduct pilot studies to aid in the discovery of successful research to market technological advancements.
InfectionControl.tips – The www.IC.tips journal is a Pan-Access, worldwide collective that extends globally and touches locally. We are a 100% volunteer-based organization. We do not accept advertising or influence. The articles and contributions on our journal are from volunteers, edited for accuracy and free of influence from special interest. We do not pay our authors. Our ISSN is 2369-7342. Our journal utilizes all the same depositories as other journals (ResearchGate, Google Scholar). However, unlike other journals the IC.tips platform is consistently marketed to over 500 groups in social media. We are the world’s largest global health platform for infection prevention and control. Our motto is: Free to Publish. Free to Access. Accessible Scientific Services.
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