Disinfecting Devices at the Point-of-Care

Could non-critical medical devices and other items used at the patient bedside present infection risks? Richard Shea, CEO of Sterifre Medical Inc., thinks so. His company has just raised $8 million in a Series B private equity round of financing to market products for rapid, point-of-care device disinfection in healthcare facilities. Shea was previously the CEO of Olympus Respiratory America, a provider of COPD treatment products, and was one of the founding executives of Stericycle Inc. “Initially we will be focused on three areas: non-critical, point-of-care medical devices, environment-of-care items that patients come into contact with, and hospital personnel health and wellness items,” Shea tells MD+DI. “Research has shown that disinfecting these items is an acute problem for nurses. Non-critical devices include items like radios/phones, tablets, thermometers, glucometers, otoscopes, stethoscopes, oximeters, pads/sensors, cords/cables, doppler probes, etc. Patient-use items include remote controls, phones, tablets, call buttons, etc. Finally, at the end of a shift, a clinician’s personal items such as phones, keys, ID badges, jewelry, etc. can be thoroughly and quickly disinfected prior to going home.” Sterifre’s automated point-of-care system, Aura, seeks to address user concerns with current disinfection approaches. “As more and more ...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Business Source Type: news