A Day In The Life Of An APIC Board Member

From the 18th - 22nd of May I was fortunate enough to be invited to present to delegates at the Joint Meeting of the 17th National Conference on Nosocomial Infection of Chinese Preventative Medicine Association and the 4th Shanghai International Forum on Infection Control (SIFIC) in Shanghai, China. What an amazing event!

Despite having suffered a major and catastrophic earthquake just a week prior to the conference more than 700 Chinese delegates gathered for the 3-day meeting. The Chinese ICPs and high level officials kept apologising for the 300 or so delegates who were on stand-by or who had already left to provide aid to the earthquake region. Imagine the challenges those aid workers faced. The Chinese papers reported major problems with no running water and several cases of “gas gangrene”. It made me again appreciate my own good fortune to live and work in a country where infection prevention is valued and fairly well understood. I also wondered how an organisation like APIC could help these ICPs. Maybe through provision of training materials or contingency plans. International infection control aid is a really important area where we can all potentially contribute. Please let me know if you have an interest in this area.

The majority of the Chinese conference was delivered in Mandarin or Cantonese. As neither are languages I use I had to rely on the excellent services of an interpretor for my presentations. Several of the abstracts and talk titles were printed in English and I was fascinated to see the speed with which Chinese hospitals are implementing best infection prevention practices. This was especially evident in relation to their interests in safe handling, use and disposal of sharps, prevention of catheter-related bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

APIC members may also be interested to note that Chinese ICPs have developed and routinely make use of their own Chinese Electronic List Serv similar to the APIC List. The list is facilitated by my friend and colleague Dr Hu from Shanghai. Dr Hu is the List’s official Grand Master and more than 100 ICPs across China participate as sub-Master moderators. It’s really amazing to see how APIC’s influence and ideas have touched and fertilised the far ends of the world. I hope to soon add some photos from the trip to this site. Please let me know if you have any interest in learning more about the conference or Chinese infection control. E-mail me at cmurp@icp.au.com     

I would really value the opportunity to meet with as many APIC members as possible and to include you in my personal network. During the upcoming APIC meeting in Denver I will be wearing an ASK ME WHY badge. On Sunday 15th June from 5:00pm to 8:00pm I will be just inside the entrance of exhibit Hall C at the Presidents Opening Reception & Exhibit Hall Opening. Please say “hi” and more importantly let’s talk about your visions for APIC and how APIC can better serve you and your Chapter. If there is an alternative time that suits you better please either call me during APIC on 404 406 9085 or send me an e-mail any time to cmurp@icp.au.com I look forward to meeting you soon.

Since the beginning of the year I have been wracking my brain trying to think of a low-cost fun initiative with potential to raise lots of money for the APIC Silent Auction in Denver in June. I asked myself the question “what would a typical APIC member really value and be prepared to pay for”?. Perhaps I’m wrong but I thought a really valuable and unique item would be a thumbdrive full of the “best” powerpoints from the world’s leading Infection Preventionists. This is something that at every stage of my career I would have really loved.