PurThread | The Dirt

Our Store is Open for Business!

July 21, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

We’re very happy to announce that the PurThread Online Store is open for business, and our antimicrobial scrubs and lab coats are available for sale. You’ll also find our PurThread Sport golf shirt in the store. And, of course, this is just the beginning; we’re looking forward to adding more antimicrobial textile products as they become available.

We’ve been busily developing and testing our unique garments over the past few years, so we’re excited that we can now make them available for sale to individuals, as well as institutions. Our technology binds our proprietary active ingredient both in and on the fiber itself. That process means that the antimicrobial agent’s effectiveness does not wash away over time. It also means that the resulting fabric has the same comfortable feel as similar untreated blended fabrics.

Starting today, you don’t have to take our word for it. We’re thrilled to be able to say “Head over to the PurThread Online Store and try one or more of our products for yourself.” Use coupon code PTB3938 and get free shipping on your first order. Happy shopping!

PurThread^TM Technologies Inc. is dedicated to developing proprietary antimicrobial textile technology. Our patent-pending, integration technology and fiber formulations incorporate an EPA-registered antimicrobial additive into every fiber and yarn to protect the fabric from degradation. Learn more about our antimicrobial textile technology.

PurThread also makes a range of freshness products for other markets such as the military, emergency first responders and performance athletic wear in which our next-generation technology and fiber formulations expand the high performance options available to protect fabrics from odor, mold and mildew causing bacteria.

Filed Under: News

Catastrophic Care in the U.S.?

July 9, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

978-0-307-96154-9 Reading only the jacket and full title of David Goldhill’s latest book, “Catastrophic Care: How American Health Care Killed My Father—and How We Can Fix It” you might expect an indictment of providers—doctors and hospitals. After all, it’s widely acknowledged that our health care system has grown costly and inefficient, and often ineffective. What you’ll find instead is an excellent analysis of how the changing role of insurance from a true hedge against unforeseen emergencies to a system of intermediary payers for virtually all medical services. This evolution has negatively affected the essential players in healthcare: patients and providers.

While most of the references in other editions of The Dirt are to medical, scientific, or academic experts, Goldhill is none of those. He is the CEO of GSN (Game Show Network), whose father contracted fatal healthcare-acquired infections while being treated for pneumonia. Perhaps as a result of that experience, Goldhill has written a well-researched book that defines the problems with our current system, explains the evolution that has caused or enabled those shortcomings, and provides a comprehensive vision of a better system of healthcare.

Goldhill posits that everything about healthcare is treated differently than any other industry: from the payment system to measures of effectiveness, and acceptance of poor performance. Goldhill refers to this as the “Island of Health Care” where everything is treated differently than on the ‘Mainland’ of consumer economics.

The author believes that as insurance has become a payment system, patients have forfeited their position as consumers, and thus, prevented real market forces from affecting quality, costs and safety. Insurance companies, not patients, are the true customers of health care providers. The system perpetuates the illusion that someone else is paying for your health care. Incomprehensible billing only makes it worse, making it harder for patients to evaluate, much less compare, service costs.

So if the lack of consumer influence is at the heart of how we got into this mess, it follows that the recommended solution lies in restoring the true consumer role of all patients. Goldhill defines the characteristics of a robust health care system: security against catastrophy, availability of treatment for all, and simplicity. He proposes a plan that combines national insurance and market forces. His proposal is comprised of 1) cradle-to-grave catastrophic health insurance (low premiums, high deductibles), 2) mandatory health savings accounts(HSAs), and 3) health loans against future contributions to the HSAs to cover expensive, but not catastrophic, illness.

Here’s why we’re recommending that you read this book: Transitioning to the truly consumer-driven solutions that Goldhill offers will require overcoming resistance and obstacles of entrenched interests, as well as societal and cultural changes in patient behavior and discipline. Such change won’t be easy and it won’t be quick. If you follow this blog, it’s obvious that you have an interest in the future of health care, and it’s incumbent on those of us with that interest to spur discussions and promote workable solutions. Catastrophic Care may not be your typical summer beach read, but in our opinion, well worth the time.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: healthcare, insurance, medical services @david_goldhill

PurThread Wins 2013 American Technology Award

June 26, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

TechWorld 2013 Awards Photos By Eddie Arrossi www.eaphoto.com

PurThread VP Bill O’Neill receives TechAmerica Award from TechAmerica CEO Shawn Osborne.
Photo by Eddie Arrossi, www.eaphoto.com

As a company so steeped in scientific research and technology innovation, we’re extremely proud to have won this year’s American Technology Award in the Advanced Manufacturing/Technology Manufacturing category, which is focused on the rapid transfer of science and technology into manufacturing products and processes.

The awards are presented at the annual Technology and Government dinner in Washington, DC that celebrates the partnership between industry and government. Sponsored by the TechAmerica Foundation, the awards honor product excellence across the U.S. technology sector as determined by a panel of industry and technology experts.

The list of winners reads like a who’s who in technology and includes such giants as Google, Cloudera and FlashArray.

We very much appreciate the recognition and affirmation of PurThread’s innovative technology that embeds antimicrobial properties into raw textile materials, before it is spun into yarn and woven into textiles.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: award, innovation, manufacturing, technology

Privacy Curtain Changing and Cleaning Policies

June 25, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

We’re just back from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control (APIC) conference in Ft. Lauderdale, and we read with interest a poster called Hospital Privacy Curtains: Cleaning and Changing Policies - Are We Doing Enough? presented there. Spoiler alert: the answer is no.

The investigators surveyed 49 infection control professionals in six states about privacy curtain management in standard patient rooms and ambulatory care rooms. They found that:

96% use privacy curtains in patient rooms
55% had a written policy on the frequency of cleaning privacy curtains
53% had a written policy on the frequency of changing privacy curtains
37% clean privacy curtains in a standard hospital room ‘only when visibly soiled’
13% clean privacy curtains in a standard hospital room ‘every month’
13% clean privacy curtains in a standard hospital room ‘every 3 months’
13% clean privacy curtains in a standard hospital room ‘once per year’
39% responded ‘Other’ to the question of how frequently they clean privacy curtains
Curtains were most often changed or cleaned when a patient had been discharged from an isolation room for a multi-drug resistant organism
82% of respondents felt that hospital curtains are a potential source of transmission of healthcare associated infections
86% felt that management of hospital curtains could be improved

We’re not surprised at these results. They are yet one more confirmation that the issue of soft surface contamination is not being sufficiently addressed. We hope some APIC attendees and other infection control professionals will view the poster and make some of the improvements in how privacy curtains are handled. We look forward to better results in future surveys.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: hospital curtains, infection control, privacy curtains

Universal Decolonization Reduces MRSA in ICUs

June 11, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

iStock_000014067437Small petri dish The research community may be a little closer to agreement on how to reach the common goal of reducing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in intensive care units (ICUs). Which approach is more effective: universal decolonization or screening and treating only those found positive for MRSA? According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, universal decolonization was more effective and efficient than the alternatives: screening with isolation or screening with isolation and decolonization. That’s good news as eliminating screening and reducing the requirement for isolation makes universal decolonization easier to implement.

Universal decolonization involves washing every ICU patient daily with chlorhexidine-impregnated cloths and administering intranasal mupirocin treatments twice-daily for 5 days . This practice has been shown to reduce MRSA infections among that population by 37% and bloodstream infection by any pathogen by 44%. Chlorhexidine’s broad antimicrobial activity means that it’s also helpful in preventing infections from many pathogens besides MRSA.

The study, which involved over 74,000 patients at 43 hospitals over a three-year period, has potential implications for ICU practices and protocols. In an accompanying editorial titled “Screening Inpatients for MRSA – Case Closed,” the writers recommend that hospitals stop screening as the practice hasn’t proved as effective as universal decolonization. They also recommend the repeal of laws mandating screening. Nine states have such laws in effect.

Contrary to the NEJM editorial, a guest blogger at Controversies in Hospital Infection Prevention, cites better infection reduction outcomes at his hospital using a targeted screening, isolation and decolonization protocol than the cited NEJM study achieved with universal decolonization. He also highlighted the issues of increased mupirocin and chlorhexidine resistance that may result from more widespread use of those antimicrobials. The guest blogger ended by recommending critical evaluation and risk assessment to determine the best approach at each facility.

Filed Under: News

Antibacterial Ions in Clay

May 28, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

Dead dry land and drug Antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) have created a need for new antibacterial approaches. Research featuring one such antibacterial innovation using clay, a material used for its medicinal properties since ancient times, was reported in PLOS ONE (the journal of the Public Library of Science).

In this case, the innovation involves the antibacterial mechanism: specific metal ions attached to the clay. Rather than taking advantage of clay’s absorption power, this study found that the effective antibacterial mechanism is the release of specific metal ions with microbiocidal properties from the clay’s surface.

Comparisons of the antibacterial effect on pathogens of similar clay samples with different levels of iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, and zinc ions demonstrate the dominant role of those ions. Variability of antibacterial strength in clay samples correlates with the clay’s chemical variability.

Now that the mechanism has been demonstrated, further research will look to standardize the composition and antibacterial efficacy of clay, and define appropriate safety precautions to avoid effects of toxic minerals that are often also present in clays. If this works out, it could lead to another point for ancient wisdom’s applicability to modern research innovations.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: antibacterial, healthcare-acquired infections, pathogens

Healthcare Acquired Infection: Finding Silent Clostridium difficile Carriers

May 16, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) is a serious healthcare acquired infection often carried by those who don’t present any symptoms.

Universal screening is costly, invasive, and controversial. Thus, identifying likely carriers early is highly desirable.

Similarly, identifying patients at risk of developing an infection can aid in monitoring and diagnosis. Two recent studies indicate the potential for efficient screening and improved infection control by identifying risk factors.

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic studied asymptomatic adults admitted to a tertiary care hospital over a two month period, sampled them for C. diff infections. The study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control, described how the team identified three independent risk factors that were present in 48 percent of their study participants:

Recent hospitalization
Chronic dialysis
Corticosteroid use.

The researchers found that screening only those patients with one of those risk factors would identify 74 percent of the C.diff carriers. The hope is that more efficient screening of carriers at admission can reduce overall incidents of infection.

The journal BMC Medicine contains a study by University of Michigan Medical School researchers that found that adults who suffer from major depression have a 36 percent increased risk of developing a Clostridium difficile infection. Patients who take Remeron^® or Prozac^®, two common antidepressants, are twice as likely to develop a C. difficile infection.

Most other types of antidepressants did not affect risk of infection. The authors cautioned that patients should not stop taking antidepressants unless they are advised to do so by their physician.

The same study found that widowed adults had a 54 percent higher likelihood of infection than married peers, which the authors posited may have some connection to depression. More research is needed to determine whether the increased risk is caused by intestinal changes during depression or by the medications.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Clostridium difficile, depression, healthcare acquired infection, infection control

PurThread Textiles Are American Technology Awards Finalists in Two Categories

May 8, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

We’re honored to be finalists for this prestigious award in two categories:

Advanced Manufacturing/Technology Manufacturing
Health & Medical Technologies

The awards recognize products across the technology industry and are the only “best of” awards for technology products and services. Products are judged based on innovation and the scope and significance of their impact.

According to the Chairman of the TechAmerica Foundation:

“The caliber of the nominations this year was absolutely outstanding. One of our judges put it best ‘the applications have never been so great or so hard to judge,’” said Shawn Osborne, the Chairman of the TechAmerica Foundation. “These finalists are a testimonial to the vibrancy and innovative spirit of our industry and we look forward to showcasing the winners at the Technology and Government dinner in June.”

We are excited and looking forward to attending the dinner in Washington, D.C. in June. And thrilled to be finalists in this elite group of technology solutions from across America.

Filed Under: News

Gloves? Bands? Help for Hand Hygiene Compliance

April 30, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

iStock_000014696689Small glove Hand hygiene (HH) compliance is widely recognized as an essential factor in preventing healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs). However, hand hygiene compliance is inconsistent at best. Estimates of overall HH compliance in the U.S. range from 26% to over 75%. In other words, no one knows for sure what is the real hand hygiene compliance rate .

Two recent announcements may hold hope for reducing HAIs:

A study of HAIs in a pediatric units, recently published in Pediatrics, indicates that mandatory gloving of clinicians may reduce the risk of HAIs. Between 2002 and 2010, the researchers from the University of Iowa compared HAIs during periods where mandatory gloving policies were in effect with other periods when gloving was not required. They found that the risk of HAIs was 25% lower during mandatory gloving periods, and thus, that the results suggest a potential clinical benefit for universal gloving in acute care pediatric units.

Addressing the hand hygiene compliance issue, as discussed in the December 13, 2012 installment of this blog, requires a combination of training, education, system change, workplace reminders, monitoring, and institutional culture changes.

A system introduced by a company called IntelligentM at the TEDMED conference last week claims to simplify the reminders and monitoring factors. The core of their system is a wristband (called a smartband) that interacts with RFID and Bluetooth tags on hand sanitizers, soap dispensers, and medical equipment and products.

The wristband will issue a vibrating reminder if the clinician approaches catheter packaging, for example, without having performed hand hygiene first, or when proper protocols have not been followed. The system can also report compliance data to the administrative department on an individual clinician or aggregated department or location basis.

Both of these measures—mandatory gloving and wristband monitoring systems—sound expensive and difficult to implement. However, the comparative cost in dollars or in patient consequences are likely to make these measures seem much more accessible.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: HAIs, hand hygiene compliance, healthcare-acquired infections

Infection control efforts undone by dirty needles?

April 17, 2013 By PurThread Leave a Comment

Infection control is a complex endeavor. As we’ve mentioned in this column many times before, successful healthcare-associated infection control requires a multifaceted approach: hand hygiene, environmental services, antimicrobial hard and soft surfaces, basic best surgical and instrument-handling practices and more. That’s why it’s so surprising to most Americans that reusing syringes or drawing multiple doses from single-use vials of medications in healthcare settings is still a problem.

Granted, it’s only a small percentage of injections that violate CDC injection safety protocols, but it’s somewhat shocking that it happens at all. Approximately 150,000 people¹ have been affected by inappropriate injection practices over the past decade. However, the impact on some of the affected patients and facilities can be dramatic, including outbreaks of MRSA, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.

A survey reported in the American Journal of Infection Control, found that 6% of clinical personnel questioned said they “sometimes or always” use single-dose/single-use vials for more than one patient. Other less frequently cited practices that are inconsistent with current guidelines included overt syringe reuse and use of a bottle or bag of IV solution for more than one patient. All reported infractions, by the way, occurred about evenly in hospital and non-hospital settings—outpatient cancer clinics, hemodialysis clinics, dental offices, pain clinics, and so on.

The survey concluded that a multifaceted approach would be needed to reduce or eliminate unsafe injection practices. Use of educational resources from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others, redesign of devices to reduce the risks of unsafe practices, surveillance and monitoring, and enforcement of those protocols and laws. In addition, the study recommends developing a culture where patients, supervisors, and peers are vigilant to make sure safe practices are followed and vocal in questioning health care providers to make sure injections are safe.

¹ Dirty medical needles put tens of thousands at risk in USA USA Today, March 6, 2013

Filed Under: News Tagged With: healthcare-acquired infections, infection control, injection safety

Our Store is Open for Business!

Catastrophic Care in the U.S.?

PurThread Wins 2013 American Technology Award

Privacy Curtain Changing and Cleaning Policies

Universal Decolonization Reduces MRSA in ICUs

Antibacterial Ions in Clay

Healthcare Acquired Infection: Finding Silent Clostridium difficile Carriers

PurThread Textiles Are American Technology Awards Finalists in Two Categories

Gloves? Bands? Help for Hand Hygiene Compliance

Infection control efforts undone by dirty needles?

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