FORUM PanAmericano: CLEANICAL - Bilingual marketing tool - CLEANICAL®

The tasks involved in medical device reprocessing are becoming increasingly more complex (”functionality and hygiene“). In addition, efforts are ongoing to achieve professional recognition. These also include knowledge exchange through publications and attendance at conferences.

In many countries medical device reprocessing is not recognized as an independent profession/occupation based on defined qualifications. The Primer Congreso Iberoamericano (Baranquilla 4 to 6 June 2015) in Columbia attested to the widespread interest shown by the professionals in matters related to reprocessing. The congress materials handed out to all delegates included a copy of the FORUM 2011–2015 ”Por último“ presented as a supplement to the journal Zentralsterilisation – Central Service in Spanish and French. This was received with great interest, in particular since it was not designed to advertise the products of any specific manufacturer.

That interest has now led to the idea of expanding the German FORUM concept, as an informative publication tailored to the growth market ”Las Americas“, in the world’s leading languages, i.e. English and Spanish. The intention is to produce two issues per year, which would be available to coincide with the corresponding spring and autumn conferences.

The content presented on this platform would, no doubt, also elicit interest in the USA since Spanish is being spoken increasingly in that country (including in the reprocessing departments). Such a bilingual publication would have the additional benefit of helping interested staff members improve their knowledge of the relevant English terminology, which in turn would contribute to the longterm success and value of the publication.

The scale of investment in reprocessing at international level should be based on similar factors that can be calculated by the medical device manufacturers. One aspect that comes to mind here is the international call for ”validated reprocessing procedures“, implemented at different levels by the manufacturer and operator, e.g. for performance qualification of cleaning and disinfection processes, with regard to limit and alarm values for protein residues following cleaning as well as to biological, chemical and physical process monitoring.

Another topic addressed on such a FORUM platform is how to deal with real or perceived risks in the context of quality management as per ISO 13485.

Since we now have more than 15 years of routine experience with the International Forum Medical Devices & Processes, there are already several articles available that could be of particular interest on the American continent, and would also help to explain the European approach to reprocessing and invite discussion of specific topics, e.g.: