In this podcast, Brett talks to Adjunct A/Professor Greg Whiteley about adenosine triphosphate (ATP). We chat about its use in healthcare as a way to evaluate environmental cleanliness. Greg is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, and is also an adjunct Fellow in the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University. Greg is also the Executive Chairman of Whiteley Corporation, a manufacturer of Therapeutic Goods based in the Hunter Regio...
Feb 02, 2022•25 min•Season 2Ep. 44
In this, the first episode of 2022, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Matt Butler, Consultant Geriatrician (Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK), Dr Christine Peters, Consultant Microbiologist (NHS Greater Glasgow, Scotland) and Dr Evonne Curran, now an independent IPC Consultant. We start off by discussing how Matt came to design a study that looks at the effect of air filtration on a range of infections, including respiratory viruses and more 'common' pathogens like Clostridium difficile. We also di...
Jan 26, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 43
In this largely unedited Christmas special podcast, Martin, Phil and Brett reflect on podcasts undertaken in 2021 and the year that was. This podcast is a little longer as we "chinwag" about a range of different topics and issues and have a laugh along the way. We hope you enjoy.
Dec 15, 2021•55 min•Season 1Ep. 42
In this week’s episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Professor Jennie Wilson of the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London and current Infection Prevention Society President. We discuss her recent editorial, co-written with Associate Professor Jacqui Prieto from the University of Southampton. After 25 years of contact precautions, first introduced as putative best practice, the evidence to support this intervention has not appeared and there are suggestions that harms may be b...
Dec 08, 2021•28 min•Ep. 41
In this podcast, Phil and Brett talk to Simon Witts on a wide ranging topics related to ventilation and also touch on air scrubbers (purifiers). Simon is Director of Engineering at VA Science, with extensive experience in hospital and building ventilation design. We cover topics such as air changes, what makes a good ventilation system and hotel quarantine. We also cover practical things like where best to sit on a bus to reduce the risk of infection.
Dec 01, 2021•32 min•Ep. 40
In this podcast, Phil and Brett talk to Adjunct Professor Alison McMillan on the topics of leadership and negotiation. Alison is Australia's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer. We hear first hand experiences related to COVID and tips for building relationships and nursing leadership. Professor (Practice) Alison McMillan PSM was appointed as Australia's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer in November 2019. In June 2021 Alison was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to d...
Nov 24, 2021•24 min•Ep. 39
In the last ACIPC conference special podcast, Brett and Phil talk to Stephanie Curtis about wearable proximity devices for nurses and doctors - and their use for contact tracing. We also talk about other potential uses. Stephanie is an epidemiologist at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre. She worked on the COVID-19 response in Victoria over 2020-2021 and recently completed Australia's field epidemiology training program, the MAE, based at Alfred Health and Burnet Institute. St...
Nov 17, 2021•19 min•Ep. 38
In this third special edition from the 2021 ACIPC Conference, Brett and Martin talk to Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska about the science of air. Lidia was named in Times magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world for helping highlight the airborne spread of COVID-19. Topics includes in this podcast include the science of aerosolisation from the respiratory tract, activities or source that dictate particle size and terminology around droplet and airbourne transmission....
Nov 12, 2021•39 min•Season 1Ep. 37
In this second special edition from the 2021 ACIPC Conference, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Drs Mary Wyer and Su-yin Hor. Mary and Su-Yin's work on Video Reflexive Ethnography (VRE - not that one) is world-reknowned with many publications. In this discussion they outline how the use of video to examine and develop practice has helped in biopreparedness as well as its uses in other areas of infection prevention and control and nurse education. Papers referred to in this podcast: http...
Nov 10, 2021•31 min•Ep. 36
In this special ACIPC conference episode, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Dr Gillian-Ray-Barruel, from Griffith University School of Nursing and Midwifery and QEII Jubilee Hospital, Brisbane. Gillian is presenting at the 2021 virtual ACIPC Conference on urinary catheter awareness. Gillian has an long standing interest in medical device placement, and this paper focuses on patient and staff awareness of the need for the catheter. Naturally we digress into other areas such as consent and...
Nov 09, 2021•27 min•Ep. 35
In this podcast, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Alicia Demirjian about the issue of seemingly increasing reports of Staphylococcus capitis cases in neonates. Alicia is Consultant Epidemiologist at the Evelina Children's hospital in London and leads the antimicrobial resistance and prescribing team at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) - formerly Public Health England. Alicia has been working on this issue for a while now and we discuss the problem (and if there is one), findings to date and possi...
Nov 03, 2021•31 min•Ep. 34
In this episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Prof Heather Loveday, Director of the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London about an lecture recently given at the 2021 IPS Conference. The topic discussed centres on the role that fundamental care has in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections and the impact of 'missed' care. Papers for futher reading on these topics are listed below. Journal of Clinical Nursing special issue on fundamental care: https://onlinelibrary....
Oct 27, 2021•32 min•Ep. 33
In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Jon Otter of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust in the UK about a couple of Jon's recent blog postings on the popular "Reflections" blog ( https://reflectionsipc.com/ ). We first discuss a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine that reported on a study that examined the use of monoclonal antibodies in preventing infection in unvaccinated household contacts of COVID that can be found here https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa210...
Oct 20, 2021•34 min•Ep. 32
In this episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Dr Carl-Johan Frankel from the Department of Infection Control, Lund University, Sweden about his recent paper examining the risk of transmission of Norovirus to roomates. Does norovirus transmit readily to other occupants? The findings may well surprise you! The paper is here: https://www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S0195-6701(21)00313-3/fulltext Other papers referred to: Risk of transmission to subsequent room occupants: https://www.jour...
Oct 06, 2021•19 min•Ep. 31
In another special edition from the 2021 IPS conference in Liverpool UK, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Jon Otter, who presented a paper on improving and broadening surgical site infection surveillance. But to whom does it matter and how can IPC Teams achieve engagement with other clinical specialities and managers of healthcare providers? Shockingly in this episode Jon admits to finding a qualitative study of interest - Tanner J, Padley W, Davey S, Murphy K, Brown B Patients’ experiences of surgica...
Sep 29, 2021•17 min•Season 1Ep. 30
In this episode from the IPS conference, Prof Brett Mitchell is joined by Dr Evonne Curran who has worked in the field of infection prevention and control for a number of years, was a Nurse Consultant with Health Protection Scotland and is now an independent consultant. Together they discuss the relevance of guidelines to clinical practice and whether the development process is really producing guidance that is useful in the field of nfection prevention. In this podcast these papers are referred...
Sep 28, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 29
In this final episode at ICPIC 2021 (Geneva), Martin Kiernan talks to Professor Andreas Voss from the Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) and Canisus-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis in the Netherlands. Andreas is always a sought after speaker for his engaging style whilst getting to the heart of the matter. To get the most from this podcast, you might need to look at the papers we mention below. Endoscopes Benowitz I, Moulton-Meissner HA, Epstein L, Arduino MJ. Gastrointestinal Flexible Endosco...
Sep 21, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 28
In another special edition from ICPIC, Martin talks to An Caluwaerts, IPC Specialist from Kliniek Sint Jan, Brussels. This was a poster presentation that was selected as part of a poster walk and it is a practical piece of work that describes the process of calculating the number of staff (and hours) needed to clean a standard hospital ward. A copy of the poster can be downloaded below. DETERMINING STAFFING LEVELS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANING: TIME MEASUREMENTS IN NON-CRITICAL CARE UNITS IN AN ACU...
Sep 17, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 27
In another episode from the 2021 ICPIC Conference, Martin Kiernan talks to Dr Amy Mathers, who moderated and spoke at a session on whole genome sequencing and also the issue of plasmid-mediated outbreaks. World-reknowned for her work on drains and sinks at the University of Virginia (see http://uvasinklab.org/ ), here are just a couple of the research outputs. Intensive Care Unit Wastewater Interventions to Prevent Transmission of Multispecies Klebsiella pneumoniae Carbapenemase–Producing organi...
Sep 16, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 26
In this episode from the 2021 ICPIC Conference, Martin Kiernan talks to John McConnell, Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet Infectious Diseases about his keynote yesterday about the impact (and vice-versa) of the COVID pandemic on publishing both in peer-reviewed journals and in pre-print forms. An enormous increase in the number of submissions and diversification in countries submitting are amongst the areas that we discuss. Ultimately, the research and publication process has been critical in the di...
Sep 16, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In this special episode, Martin Kiernan talks to the ICPIC 2021 Conference organisers, Profs Didier Pittet and Stephan Harbarth about the upcoming meeting to be held in Geneva. With over 400 delegates attending in person from all over Europe and further afield, this will be the first major meeting to have a significant face-to-face element since the onset of the COVID pandemic. We discuss COVID safety, programme highlights and whether hybrid design will be the future of conferences. Details of t...
Sep 09, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 24
In this episode Brett and Phil discuss improving the quality of air to reduce the risk of infection from airborne pathogens with Professor Jason Monty. We discuss air cleaner and purifiers, their role, what to consider when purchasing and practical considerations for their use. Prof Monty is Head of Department and a Professor with the Fluid Mechanics Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Melbourne. Jason is an expert in experimental fluid mechanics and hydrodynam...
Sep 07, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 23
In this episode Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan chew the fat over the fact that, despite knowing that it makes up a great proportion of HCAIs globally, progress can be measured in a series of small victories without actually winning the war. We discuss a new systematic review that suggests benefit from meatal cleansing with antiseptics ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8190044/pdf/bmjopen-2020-046817.pdf ) as well as barriers to progress in this important issue https://www.journal...
Aug 31, 2021•30 min•Season 1Ep. 22
In this week's episode, Martin Kiernan talks to WHO Consultant Claire Kilpatrick and Martin Shovel, a writer, satirical cartoonist and communications coach who runs Creativityworks, an organisation that offers training and workshops in the art of communication ( https://creativityworks.net/ ). We look at words and they way that they make people feel. Cold words (like 'compliance') are a huge turn-off, so can we find ways of gaining better engagement through the use of language? Read one of Marti...
Aug 24, 2021•29 min•Season 1Ep. 21
In this week's episode Brett MItchell and Martin Kiernan talk to Julie Storr. Julie is a consultant to the World Health Organisation who originally started her infection prevention career in Oxford in the UK. We hear how Julie was motivated by patient stories of isolation and virtual imprisonment in elderly care settings to try and bring compassion into play, supported by sound infection prevention principles. Here are links to some of the outputs from Julie's work to date. The open letter in Nu...
Aug 17, 2021•35 min•Season 1Ep. 20
In this Q&A style podcast, listeners to our podcast were offered the opportunity to pose COVID-19 related questions to a panel. Our panel included Prof Kirsty Buising, Liz Orr and A/Prof Caroline Marshall. All three panelists have been involved in the COVID-19 response in their organisations. A range of topics were discussed, including aerosol-generating behaviours, ventilation, PPE, vaccination, cleaning and visitors.
Aug 10, 2021•52 min•Season 1Ep. 19
In this episode we discuss a paper published in the Lancet which compares the effectiveness and costs of 7-day versus 4-day infusion set replacement to prevent CRBSI with lead author Professor Claire Rickard. Professor Rickard is a Professor of Infection Prevention & Vascular Access at the University of Queensland. Claire established the Alliance for Vascular Access Teaching and Research (AVATAR) in 2007 as an investigator network to promote high quality work in the field of vascular access....
Aug 03, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 18
In this week's episode, Prof Brett Mitchell talks to Daniela Karanfilovska. Daniela is an infection prevention nurse at Alfred Health in Melbourne. She led a paper published recently in the Journal of Hospital Infection in which a Delphi method was used to create an assessment tool that can be used to assess the preventability of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus . The tools also outlines potential action. The paper can be found here https://www.journal...
Aug 02, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 17
This week, Brett Mitchell and Martin Kiernan are joined by Dr Kirsty Buising, infectious diseases physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who is also Deputy Director of the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship and chief investigator for the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre for Research Excellence in Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Doherty Institute at Melbourne University. Together they discuss a paper just published in Infection Control and Hospital...
Jul 13, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 16
In this episode, Martin Kiernan and Brett Mitchell talk to Paul Webber in the 20th year of the Webber Teleclass series that remains free for all in low-income countries. Originally envisaged by his friend and mentor Dr Syed Sattar as being a short series for an Canadian audience, there have now been in excess of 750 editions with episode audiences sometimes numbering in the tens of thousands. The speaker faculty is a veritable 'Who's who' in the infection prevention world and the free online rec...
Jun 30, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 15
