Latest Conference Coverage

AORN26 highlights a multidisciplinary, culture-driven approach that reduced colon surgical site infections by over 27%, demonstrating how standardized bundles, collaboration, and perioperative alignment can significantly improve patient outcomes.

AORN26 highlights how using the teach-back method during PACU discharge education improved patient understanding and reduced surgical site infections, demonstrating the critical role of communication in infection prevention beyond the OR.

At AORN 2026, Erica Smith, DrPH, MBA, shares a practical framework for turning infection prevention guidelines into flexible, sustainable policies that help perioperative teams improve compliance without overwhelming staff or overcomplicating protocols.

AORN26 highlights how collaboration between the operating room and sterile processing department (SPD) reduced instrument contamination, minimized case delays, and improved patient safety, reinforcing the critical role of SPD partnerships in perioperative infection prevention.

AORN26 highlights a hands-on Scrub Bootcamp program that improves perioperative nurse readiness, confidence, and procedural skills, offering a scalable model to strengthen operating room training and patient safety.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift away from droplet-based precautions toward a “through the air” framework that recognizes aerosol transmission across a continuum of particle sizes. As measles, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza circulate simultaneously, this article explains why ventilation, respirators, and higher air change rates must become core infection prevention strategies in health care facilities.

Cloud fax, combined with AI and NLP, is helping health systems transform unstructured documents into FHIR-ready data. Experts say modernized fax workflows can support interoperability, reduce data silos, and help rural and under-resourced providers participate in digital health initiatives.

Fragmented systems make coordinated care difficult for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A new interoperability model using the eLTSS standard connects healthcare providers and community organizations to share person-centered service plans and improve outcomes for vulnerable populations.

When operating room delays and tray errors threatened efficiency, leaders at New York Presbyterian built a collaborative bridge with central sterile processing. Through shared metrics, workflow exchanges, and improved communication, first-case-on-time starts climbed from the 50 to nearly 90%.

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) Global Surgical Conference & Expo 2026 is coming up soon. It will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, from April 11 to 14. To give a taste of what will be available, Infection Control Today® is publishing the as-yet unposted interviews from 2025. This interview is on a poster titled “Advocacy Reduces Infection Related to Anastomotic Leaks and Incidental Lacerations.”

At IDWeek, Mohammad Enayet Hossain, PhD, from ICDDR,B, shared a breakthrough: a portable point-of-care test that works in half an hour and has strong accuracy against RT-PCR. A huge step forward for outbreak readiness.

When a nationwide blood-culture bottle shortage squeezed hospitals, a Stanford-led team turned to machine learning by building and openly sharing tools that predict which patients are most likely to have bacteremia and when a culture can be safely deferred. The simplest version works as a quick bedside score, no new software required.

A Bangladesh research team unveiled a suitcase-sized, point-of-care test that detects Nipah virus from respiratory patients in about 30 minutes, showing accuracy comparable to RT-PCR, and designed to bring rapid diagnosis and outbreak control to rural, low-resource settings.

From hand-hygiene audits to the SHEA Board of Trustees, the professional path of Alexander Sundermann, DrPH, CIC, FAPIC, AL-CIP, traces the arc of modern infection prevention. The former hospital IP—now a University of Pittsburgh assistant professor—pairs frontline experience with genomic epidemiology to turn sequencing into outbreak-stopping action.

At IDWeek in Atlanta, former CDC director Tom Frieden unveiled a crisp playbook for infection prevention—“See. Believe. Create.”—arguing it can help hospitals spot outbreaks sooner, reverse drug resistance, and drive HAIs toward zero. He paired the message with a 7-1-7 target: 7 days to find an outbreak, 1 to report, 7 to control.

What do schools need to prevent the spread of infectious diseases? Infection prevention experts and school staff in Nebraska present their collaboration at IDWeek2025.

California’s first locally acquired dengue case in 2023 triggered a rapid serosurveillance effort across Southern California—and IDWeek 2025 results suggest infections are underrecognized, with DENV-3 detected and widespread flavivirus cross-reactivity from West Nile virus complicating diagnosis.

Could Dollar General be Alabama’s next vaccination hub? At IDWeek 2025, John R. Bassler, MS, and colleagues showed that strategically pairing mobile clinics with DG stores could help close stubborn geographic vaccine gaps, especially in counties with higher social deprivation where traditional providers are scarce.

Hospital-wide sequencing of 8,567 Staphylococcus aureus isolates at NYU Langone revealed that many MRSA cases stem from tight community transmission networks—not in-hospital spread. Presented at IDWeek 2025, the work pinpoints distinct clusters (young MSM/substance-use networks, long-term care residents, and children) and urges IPC strategies that bridge hospital and community.

A multifaceted infection-prevention push at a tertiary rehab ICU in the Upper Midwest reversed a rise in C difficile, lifting hand-hygiene adherence from 69% to 91% and cutting the C. diff standardized infection ratio from 1.6 to 0.4 over six months, researchers reported at IDWeek 2025 in Atlanta.

New IDWeek 2025 data show who C difficile kills most: White patients, women, and people in major metros—with most deaths tied to health care exposure—underscoring how basics and smarter antibiotics remain our best levers to cut mortality.

Clear communication is not just important in a pandemic—it’s everything. In a preview of his upcoming Health Watch USA presentation, William Schaffner, MD, shares lessons from COVID-19 on building trust, keeping messages simple, and acknowledging uncertainty.

At APIC 2025, Metrex Research marked a major milestone—4 decades of partnering with infection preventionists. Infection Control Today caught up with Senior Marketing Manager Cheryl Collins, MPH, and clinical advisor Sharon Ward-Fore, MS, MT(ASCP), CIC, FAPIC, to talk legacy, innovation, and why supporting IPs will always be at the heart of what Metrex does best.

Sterile processing departments are facing a new standard: clean is not clean unless you can see it. At HSPA 2025, experts emphasized that updated IFUs and borescope inspections must be built into routine workflows, not as extra tasks, but as core components of quality control and infection prevention.

Despite their smooth, polished exteriors, surgical instruments often harbor dangerous contaminants deep inside their lumens. At the HSPA25 and APIC25 conferences, Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, and her colleagues revealed why borescopes are an indispensable tool for sterile processing teams, offering the only reliable way to verify internal cleanliness and improve sterile processing effectiveness to prevent patient harm.

APIC’s updated guide shifts the focus from CLABSIs to all catheter-associated bloodstream infections, offering infection preventionists a comprehensive approach to reducing bacteremia and enhancing patient safety.

The pandemic opened unexpected doors for infection preventionists, pushing their expertise beyond hospital walls into schools and communities where stopping infections at the source matters more than ever.

As seasonal viruses surge and recent outbreaks like measles highlight vulnerabilities, infection prevention experts are extending their reach into schools, recognizing that healthy classrooms are essential to healthy communities.