APIC Offers New Classroom Tool in Fight Against HAIs

Sellers of surgical masks and disinfectants are going back to school to fight superbugs.The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) announces a special course for industry sales teams and marketers designed to enlist new allies in the fight against healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

APIC is also announcing that 170 members of the 3M infection prevention sales force passed the first such course.

APIC’s Education for the Prevention of Infection (EPI) Primer was established to provide medical technology companies that develop infection prevention solutions with a greater understanding of the challenges faced by frontline healthcare workers managing the threat of HAIs.

“The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant infections such as MRSA and C. difficile in healthcare settings demands greater vigilance and greater education on the part of both healthcare workers and the companies that support them,” says Charles Eaton, APIC’s vice president for business development. “The EPI Primer was designed so that medical product and device teams have a deeper understanding about how their products may help lower the rate of infection.”

The EPI Primer provides sales and marketing teams the proper training to learn, for example, the differences between the various bacteria that cause infection through an intensive one-day course. The 3M infection prevention sales and marketing group was taught in St. Paul, Minn. by APIC’s experienced infection preventionists from across the country. Topics ranged from the infectious disease process to the role of the infection preventionist in a hospital. Special emphasis was placed on learning the specific scientific processes and terminology.

The 3M representatives are now skilled in the language of infection prevention and have a deeper affinity with their customers through customer-centered learning. Passing the EPI Primer earned the sales staff a special “APIC trained” designation, setting the stage for other industry professionals to receive similar training.

“The APIC recognition has increased our ability to speak the language of the healthcare professional,” says Mitch Coyne, marketing manager for 3M’s Medical Division. “We’re now perceived as solutions partners because of the additional level of infection prevention training.”

APIC has another EPI Primer scheduled for its upcoming annual conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. in early June.  For more information, contact Charles Eaton at (202) 454-2622 or send an email to: ceaton@apic.org.