New Technologies for Infection Prevention

Interest in technologies to assist infection prevention efforts is increasing. The basic science literature contains an abundance of novel ideas at varying stages of development. A few of these technologies have been developed beyond preclinical testing and have been used in the healthcare setting with the goal of reducing bioburden and interrupting the transmission paths of healthcare-associated organisms. New technologies are assisting in cleaning of surfaces and devices. Other technologies endeavor to insert bactericidal materials into healthcare center furnishings and garments. Additional technologies capable of tracking and monitoring have been developed to assess hand hygiene of healthcare workers. These products are attractive to infection prevention departments and hospital administrators given the difficulties inherent in achieving and maintaining desired staff behaviors; they promise to bypass the human element and deliver automated infection prevention. Yet effectiveness of these often expensive interventions is uncertain, and incremental benefit over traditional infection prevention best practices may be scant. Nevertheless, as infection prevention programs are tasked with more activities than ever (Morgan DJ, Deloney VM, Bartlett A et al, Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 36:605–608, 2015), they will continue to look for innovative strategies to improve the effectiveness of existing efforts.