Jason A Thompson
Emergency Products & Research, Inc., USA
Title: Decontamination of Prehospital Public Health Spaces
Biography
Biography: Jason A Thompson
Abstract
In 2014, the world was concerned about the largest historical outbreak of the Ebola Virus happening in West Africa. This led to significant concerns about readiness to manage those who were potentially infected. In the United States, prehospital care providers were scrambling to prepare and desperate for directions they could rely on. This caught many decision makers by surprise and eager to understand why the public health community was seemingly unprepared. With some investigation, it quickly became apparent that the issue was directly correlated to the absence of a solid general understanding of infection prevention and control (IPC) practices among first responders and, surprisingly, public health officials. A rapid solution to this problem was essential, but there were no obvious leaders taking the charge, so a small team from Emergency Products & Research (EP+R), of Kent, Ohio, stepped forward. Working with other industry professionals and seeking advice from academia, EP+R launched an initiative that evolved into AMBUstat™, which is a program designed to introduce a common sense approach to IPC that can be easily and cost-effectively rolled out around the globe. The AMBUstat™ portable biological decontamination system, a key component of the AMBUstat™ program, was designed for ease-of-use, minimal training requirements and environmental consciousness. With the AMBUstat™ program, IPC is easy to understand and it provides the potential for a global platform that enables us to be ready for the next biological threat, with the most important aspect being a critical focus on proactive rather than reactive strategies.
