APIC Conference to Focus On Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infections

May 16, 2008

Noted patient safety expert and author of Internal Bleeding: The Truth Behind America's Terrifying Epidemic of Medical Mistakes, Robert M. Wachter, M.D., will deliver the keynote address at the 35th Annual Educational Conference and International Meeting of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), June 15-19 in Denver.

The meeting is the largest annual gathering of infection prevention and control professionals from around the world. Wachter, professor and associate chairman of the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, will use his presentation to answer the question "What Can Infection Control and Patient Safety Learn from Each Other?"

The keynote will reflect on the integration of infection prevention into patient safety and discuss how the field of infection prevention and control can teach vital lessons to individuals and organizations striving to decrease medical errors, APIC says.

Also featured at the event will be APIC's "Targeting Zero" campaign, a series of new educational initiatives promoting best practices and elimination strategies for Clostridium difficile-associated disease and infections that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are planning for reduced reimbursement should these infections occur during a hospital stay. Results of a recent survey of APIC members on the "Pace of Progress" of adoption of interventions to prevent MRSA will also be presented.

Additional highlights of the more than 75 topics on the week's agenda include:

  • "Treatment of MRSA Infections and Role for Decolonization," Chip Chambers, M.D., Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California, San Francisco
  • "MDR/XDR Tuberculosis," Robert Belknap, Denver Public Health Department, Denver
  • "Surgical Center Hepatitis C Outbreak: Use of Unsafe Injection Practices," Brian Labus, MPH, Senior Epidemiologist, Southern Nevada Health District, Las Vegas, Nev.
  • "CMS's Value-Based Purchasing Activities," Mark A. Levine, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Denver Region, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  • "The Changing Epidemiology of Clostridium difficile," L. Clifford McDonald, M.D., Medical Epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • "Collaboration with Public Health Partners--The Fight Against MRSA," Bonnie M. Barnard, MPH, CIC, Surveillance Epidemiologist, Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Helena, Mont.

APIC expects more than 4,000 infection prevention and control professionals from around the world to convene at the event. For more information, visit www.apic.org.



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