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Webinar lab Abbott Diabetes Care sponsors continuing medical educational events for healthcare professionals across the country. You can register for upcoming sessions here, or watch archived webinar recordings at any time, from anywhere. These Abbott Diabetes Care events are presented by esteemed professionals in the world of healthcare and research, and managed by Whitehat Communications to ensure a professional environment. All programs are free, and offer PACE® Continuing Education Credits for up to six months after the live event. Be sure to check back often for new event postings. 

Recognizing Hazards and Improving Patient Safety in Blood Glucose Testing
Live Event: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 1:00 - 2:00 PM Eastern
PACE® Credit available until July 13, 2016 | Florida Laboratory Credit available for live session

 Recording

 Dr. Geaghan's Slides

Dr. Davis' Slides
Point of care glucose testing is on the rise. CDC estimates that there are 25.8 million diabetics in the United States alone. Safety issues in glucose testing quickly become a major public health issue. Outbreaks of hepatitis B have occurred with increasing frequency in the U.S. according to CDC data, and nearly 90% are associated with the glucose testing practice. With the expansion of handheld point of care testing devices beyond glucose meters to other types of routine testing, the hazard to patients is increasing in scope.

According to survey data, point of care testing personnel are concerned about transmission of infection, but there is confusion or a lack of knowledge about safe and appropriate use of blood glucose monitoring and other point of care testing equipment.

In this webinar, participants will learn how to reduce or eliminate the risks of infectious transmission associated with point of care testing in their institution.

Drs. Geaghan and Davis will present the latest clinical data and demonstrate best practices using CDC and FDA guidance in hand hygiene, meter disinfection and storage, restriction of multi-use finger stick devices, and consideration of single-use strategies for diabetic supplies and equipment.

This session will:

Identify practices that pose risk to patient safety today, such as cross-contamination
Compare and contrast risks in self-monitoring of blood glucose versus assisted monitoring
Describe how hepatitis B and other pathogens can be transmitted from patient to patient through point of care equipment used in health care facilities and current FDA and CDC guidance
Design best practices for safety in point of care testing through a variety of illustrations


This webinar has been made possible through an educational grant from Abbott Diabetes Care.

Download the synopsis of Dr. Davis' study on the prevalence of MRSA on glucose test strips and vials here.
Presenter:
Sharon Geaghan, MD
Associate Professor
Stanford University School of Medicine
Departments of Pathology and Pediatrics
Sharon Geaghan
Presenter:
Thomas E. Davis, MD, PhD
Culbertson Professor
Indiana University School of Medicine
Department of Pathology
Tom Davis
   
Blood Glucose Monitoring: Core Practices Across all Healthcare Settings
Live Event:  Tuesday, October 21, 2014  1:00 - 2:00 PM Eastern
PACE® Credit available until April 21, 2015 | Florida Laboratory Credit available for live session
RecordingView Slides
Despite ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of infection during blood glucose monitoring practice, hospitals continue to experience difficult challenges. As a result, the transmission of dangerous blood borne, staph, C. difficile and other pathogens continue to pose significant risk to patients. A major reason for this ongoing problem is the fact that healthcare providers have often been unable to devise a plan to address all of the steps involved in the blood glucose monitoring practice to address risk, intervention, and expectations of the practitioners.

Fortunately, the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) has recently identified and published a set of core practices of care in any healthcare setting. It is expected that this document will become the framework for evaluating a broad range of practices including lab, nursing, and physicians and offer the knowledge and competency skills necessary to minimize patient risks.

This webinar will review these core practices and, using specific scenarios, demonstrate how the steps involved in blood glucose monitoring are crucial applications of these core practices. The webinar will also help to identify and mitigate practice gaps in blood glucose monitoring that are likely to introduce risks to patients, and explore practice-based solutions to infection transmission during the full spectrum of activities involved in blood glucose monitoring.

This session will:

Review the the CDC’s recently released Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee’s Core Practices
Analyze the basic element of the CDC Core Practices for Infection Prevention that address care provided in all settings
Demonstrate how the steps involved in blood glucose monitoring are crucial applications of these core practices using specific scenarios.
Explore practice-based solutions to infection transmission during the full spectrum of activities involved in blood glucose monitoring

This webinar has been made possible through an educational grant from Abbott Diabetes Care.



The following whitepapers are available for further information on preventing infection transmission:

Basic Infection Control and Prevention Plan for Outpatient Oncology Settings (CDC)
Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings (CDC)
Core Components for Infection Prevention and Control Programs (World Health Organization)


To learn more from Abbott Diabetes Care about solutions to reducing your risk of cross-contamination, click here
Presenter:
Ruth M. Carrico, PhD RN FSHEA CIC
Associate Professor
University of Louisville School of Medicine
Ruth Carrico
Dr. Carrico is an Associate Professor with the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Associate Faculty with the Center for Health Hazards Preparedness in the School of Public Health and Information Sciences. Dr. Carrico has received training specific for healthcare epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in conjunction with the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

In 2011, Dr. Carrico was appointed by Secretary Sebelius to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) for a three year term and was also selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow for the 2011-2014 cohort. In 2012, she was presented with the Carole DeMille Achievement Award by APIC. In 2013, Dr. Carrico was appointed to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases as the Board’s Nurse Planner.
   
Preventing Infection Transmission: Moving Toward Ideal Practice
Live Event: Tuesday, April 22, 2014  1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern
PACE® Credit available until October 21, 2014 | Florida Laboratory Credit available for live session
RecordingView Slides
Ensuring competent infection prevention and control practice by all healthcare personnel across the healthcare continuum continues to be a challenge, particularly during blood glucose monitoring. In spite of efforts to recognize the contamination risks to the caregiver and patients, to prevent the reuse of any device that may be shared and therefore pose a transmission risk to others, and to embrace the use of safety devices and personal protective equipment by caregivers, reports of blood borne pathogen transmission persist. Ultimately, ongoing evaluation of the entire blood glucose monitoring process continues.

Scrutiny of the process has yielded additional concerns regarding the use of blood glucose monitoring test strips and their potential role in bloodborne pathogen transmission. Anecdotal reports have identified blood on test strip bottles indicating infection prevention failure by healthcare personnel. And worse, pathogens have been identified inside the test strip bottles that also point to infection prevention and control failures. With the increasing rate of childhood, adolescent, and adult onset diabetes, this contamination risk is likely to increase as well.

Poor or inadequate infection prevention and control practice during performance of blood glucose monitoring is a high impact and high consequence gap in practice. This gap has the potential to harm patients, healthcare personnel, the healthcare organization, and the community from both health and financial perspectives. Addressing this impact requires that healthcare facilities not only incorporate recognized educational techniques, but encourage “ideal practice” methods by all caregivers involved in glucose testing.

This session will:

Review the steps in blood glucose monitoring focusing on those that represent risk and contamination prevention opportunities
Outline core infection prevention and control practices that are key to the safe blood glucose monitoring process
Identify practice questions where data are limited or unknown
Explore solutions that bring existing practice close to ideal practice

This webinar has been made possible through an educational grant from Abbott Diabetes Care.

The following whitepapers are available for further information on preventing infection transmission:

AJIC - Bacterial Cross Contamination of Glucose Test Strips
Dr Nichols Estimated Strip Wastage
Prevalence of Bacterial Contamination of Glucose Test Strips
Ron NG Multicenter evaluation of bacterial contamination of glucose


To learn about solutions to preventing infection transmission from Abbott Diabetes Care, click here
Presenter:
Ruth M. Carrico, PhD RN FSHEA CIC
Associate Professor
University of Louisville School of Medicine
Ruth Carrico photo
Dr. Carrico is an Associate Professor with the University of Louisville School Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, and Associate Faculty with the Center for Health Hazards Preparedness in the School of Public Health and Information Sciences. Dr. Carrico has received training specific for healthcare epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in conjunction with the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).

In 2011, Dr. Carrico was appointed by Secretary Sebelius to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) for a three year term and was also selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow for the 2011-2014 cohort. In 2012, she was presented with the Carole DeMille Achievement Award by APIC. In 2013, Dr. Carrico was appointed to the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases as the Board’s Nurse Planner.
   
The Keys to Evidence-Based Infection Prevention in the Healthcare Setting
Live Event: Tuesday, November 5, 2013 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern
This is an encore presentation of the highly rated October 22nd session
PACE® Credit available until May 4, 2014 | Florida Laboratory Credit available for live session only
RecordingView Slides
Each year, 1.7 million healthcare acquired infections in the US result in $20 billion in preventable costs. Superbugs are overtaking intensive care units with no new antimicrobials on the horizon. To eliminate the transmission and proliferation of these organisms, many facilities are now mandated to state report infection rates and to promote the appropriate use of antimicrobials through antimicrobial stewardship. This webinar will provide creative, evidence based, cost-effective, and practical strategies that meet the spirit of regulatory agency oversight to prevent healthcare associated infections.

Conventional practices will be questioned to ultimately improve patient outcomes and prevent wasted dollars while creating a forum that promotes confidence and empowers healthcare professionals to be open-minded, intellectually nimble and capable of assimilating new infection prevention ideas into the fabric of their organization. These ideas will be based on the latest information and research available in the healthcare setting and will facilitate the creation of a safer world through prevention of infection.

This session will:

• Analyze the principles, practices and regulations associated with infection prevention in a health care setting
• Explore the route of infection in the health care setting from its source to the susceptible host
• Discuss the evidence based methods to break the chain of infection and prevent transmission in the health care setting
• Clarify the role of point of care instrument disinfection to prevent the spread of infection
• Develop creative strategies to adapt infection prevention processes to a variety of settings

This webinar has been made possible through an educational grant from Abbott Diabetes Care.

To learn about solutions to infection prevention in the healthcare setting from Abbott Diabetes Care, click here
Presenter:
Marianne Pavia, MT(ASCP), CLS, CIC 
Director of Infection Prevention
Employee Health and Laboratory Services
St. Mary's Hospital
Marianne Pavia Picture
Marianne presented her successes in infection prevention at APIC National, The National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutes, and several long term care conferences throughout the state of NY.

Marianne won the APIC 2012 Leadership Award and received her Masters of Science in Human Service Leadership from St. Joseph's College in Brooklyn, NY. 
 
   
Cross-Contamination Risks at the Point of Care: Can They be Controlled?
Live Event: April 27, 2012  11:00 AM - 12:00 PM Eastern
PACE Credit available until October 26, 2012
 
 RecordingView Slides
According to CDC, healthcare associated infections cost between $35 - 45 billion in 2007, and result in significantly longer hospital stays.A major contributor to these infections is cross-contamination which occurs when healthcare providers transport objects contaminated with pathogens from one patient room to another. These objects can be personal belongings or medical devices such as those used for assisted glucose monitoring.

This session will examine cross-contamination from assisted glucose monitoring in healthcare facilities, with specific discussion of current best practice, along with the steps taken by the FDA and CDC to reduce its occurrence. This presentation will look at cross-contamination of the patient environment by the point of care provider from the perspective of likelihood, costs and potential vectors. The opportunities for hospital acquired infections can be reduced, and several general approaches to their control will be discussed.

This session will:

Discuss cross-contamination as a threat in the managed healthcare setting
Describe measures that can be taken to reduce cross-contamination
Apply these measures in assisted glucose monitoring procedures for compliance and patient safety

To learn about cross-contamination solutions from Abbott Diabetes Care, click here. 
Presenter:
Scott Sutton, PhD
The Microbiology Network
 
Scott Sutton photo
Additional Educational Resources Sponsored by Abbott Diabetes Care POC Webinars
Abbott Diabetes Care's commitment to education extends to our sponsorship of many of the 2014 point of care group webinars, which are produced by Whitehat Communications and free to the point of care and laboratory community. You can register for the 2014 sessions and view the recorded sessions by visiting: 2014 Point of Care group webinars 
 
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