Editor's Note This Australian study compares the accuracy of monitoring personal protective equipment (PPE) donning and doffing between an artificial intelligent (AI) machine collaborating with a remote buddy support system and an onsite buddy. The researchers conducted a pilot simulation study with 30 procedural scenarios (15 donning and 15 doffing)…

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The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has revised the ANSI/AAMI PB70 Liquid barrier performance and classification of protective apparel and drapes intended for use in healthcare facilities. This revised standard provides healthcare professionals with a better understanding of the barrier protection properties of available protective apparel. The…

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Editor's Note In response to questions, on April 21, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided an update to its Safety Communication that enables the use of existing inventory of the O&M Halyard FLUIDSHIELD Surgical N95 Respirator Masks, Orange (Regular), Level 3, (Model 46727). The FDA recommends that, if necessary,…

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Editor's Note In this British Medical Journal editorial, experts say that female healthcare workers (HCWs) need better protection of their breast tissue from routine ionizing radiation, and they urge implementation of more rigorous radiation protection standards. The experts make the following recommendations: reducing the duration of exposure increasing the distance…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 12, issued a Safety Communication recommending that consumers, healthcare providers, and facilities not use certain surgical N95 respirators and to use caution with certain surgical masks and pediatric face masks, all manufactured by O&M Halyard. The FDA says it is…

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Editor's Note California health officials, on March 3, announced plans to relax guidance on masking in healthcare and other indoor high-risk settings and to end vaccination requirements for healthcare workers, effective April 3, the March 3 Los Angeles Times reports. Also, starting March 13, those who test positive for COVID-19…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, finds a large degree of variation in fit testing results for N95 masks in healthcare workers (HCWs). The researchers retrospectively analyzed 12,582 qualitative fit testing results for several models of N95 masks in 8,809 HCWs. Among the…

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Editor's Note The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) on January 18 released a revised American National Standard that includes new information for manufacturers and users of personal protective equipment (PPE). The new edition of “ANSI/AAMI PB70:2022, Liquid barrier performance and classification of protective apparel and drapes intended…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill finds that scrub color is a valuable identification tool, and it is associated with patients’ perceptions of surgeons. An electronic survey was administered to patients and visitors at the University of North Carolina Medical Center in Chapel…

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Editor's Note In response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) relaxation of recommendations for universal healthcare personnel masking, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) on October 3 strongly urged its 15,000 members to continue masking in patient care areas. Requiring masks for anyone…

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