Medical Device Cleaning Witnesses a Shift from Manual to High-performance Automation

ROBUST MEDICAL DEVICE CLEANING THAT BENEFITS STAFF, PATIENTS & DELIVERS COST EFFICIENCY

Care, cleaning, sterilization and disinfection of medical devices has become crucial, especially due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Medical device cleaning includes the sanitization of oxygen concentrators, non-invasive mechanical ventilation equipment, surgical instruments and ultrasound probes amongst other devices. But what are the measures followed for robust cleaning of medical devices? Let’s find out!

New methods for cleaning surgical instruments, ultrasound probes and endoscopes

Manual, ultrasonic and automatic cleaning of surgical instruments is being implemented in emerging economies like India, Bangladesh and Vietnam where invested are taking keen interest in building a robust healthcare infrastructure. Thorough cleaning of ultrasound probes is important to avoid incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in patients. Whereas, Everis™ Next is Novozymes’ new enzyme for enhanced endoscope cleaning that enables highly relevant and differentiating cleaning power to endoscope detergents. Let’s explore advanced methods of medical device cleaning.

Advanced methods of medical device cleaning:

1. Automatic cleaning of surgical instruments: Large medical practices are investing in automatic washers that are validated by the U.S. FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Rigorous evaluation is done for disinfection and sterilization of surgical instruments.
2. High-level disinfection of ultrasound probes: GE Healthcare is gaining recognition for its TD 100^® TEE probe disinfector that helps to automate, standardize and simplify the disinfection of ultrasound transducers.
3. Next-gen Enzymes for cleaning endoscopes: Manufacturers are increasing R&D to develop enzymes that can be combined with detergents that help to improve cleaning performance and reduce time spend for re-cleaning of endoscopes.

Thus, the market of medical device cleaning is transitioning from time-consuming manual cleaning to more time-efficient automated cleaning. Healthcare facilities are extending high-performance cleaning for difficult to clean instruments like dental and orthopedic hand pieces.