Sarah Rosenblum Ptach – Superstar recognition for her healthcare packaging industry omnipresence, and her tireless contribution to the KiiP group, the Pack-Out and other industry organizations. 

Elon Goldbaum – Elon’s Superstar recognition comes from his leadership skills with his role at the Network Partners group and beyond. He is a go-to SME in medical device packaging.

Justin Anderson – Justin is the master of boot strap and rapid deployment and demonstrated those skills building out a cleanroom and packaging workstation for Tensor surgical.

Amy Stewart – Despite her demanding position at Printpack, Amy is deeply involved in a host of committees and groups in healthcare packaging. Her organizational skills are stellar!

Kelly Mawer – In her role as a Production Scientist with BIOLYPH Kelly closely monitors the exacting details of her work with a granular optic on healthcare packaging Quality control.

Harry Oussoren – Superstar award for his passion for device sterility. Since 2011, Harry has been President of the Dutch Society of Sterile Medical Devices Experts and Vice President and Board Member of the World Federation for Hospital Sterilization (WFHSS). 

J. Darrel Hicks – He is the author of “Infection Control for Dummies” and his passion is for learning and teaching others about the importance of cleaning as it relates to the prevention of infections. 

Buffy Lioyd-Krejci – Dr. Buffy Lloyd-Krejci is passionate about Infection and is one of the foremost authorities on infection prevention and control in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

Nevoa – Superstar product award winner for infection prevention with their whole-room hypochlorous acid (HOCl) fogging technology. 

David Jagrosse – A champion teacher that has created no-cost content on Linkedin to educate SPD technicians across the US. He is passionate about the safe and sterile presentation of devices in the OR.

Tyra Smith – Her heartfelt nomination described all her activities as an SPD technician. She has gone well beyond the call of duty to assure the safe and sterile delivery of medical devices.

Malinda Elammari – A true Superstar and SME regarding all functions of the SPD. She travels the country speaking on improved techniques in Sterile Processing. She is a role model fixture to our industry. 

Christine Denis – Christine from the (WFHSS = World Forum For Hospital Supply) recognized for her outstanding commitment for HAI prevention and healthcare packaging.

So, what does the selection process for the SterileAware™ ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’ look like? Does it require a core educational level or baseline years in the industry or published work? The answer is none of the above. The superstars that we seek are the hard-working, big-hearted individuals that put in the extra time and effort to make a difference in patient safety. 

I have been in medical device development for 30 years and in medical packaging for about 27 years. Over these decades I have connected with thousands of individuals and companies that serve the sterile device delivery space. The ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’ gives me, my colleagues, and you as well the opportunity to recognize the people that are making worthwhile contributions. This includes everything from medical device manufacturers, healthcare processing and packaging professionals as well as all the healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics that support a patient’s safe journey through a healthcare facility.

Through our street-level observations, we will identify standout superstars and avoid the multi-layers of the bureaucracy of traditional Industry awards. We believe this will democratize the recognition process and give much-deserved credit to healthcare value chain superstars that may fall under the radar if not nominated under other industrial award platforms.

So, will we be awarding colleagues that we have a close relationship with that some may call “Friends”? Of course, we will however never play the cronyism game. It is very likely that the people being recognized for their outstanding service in healthcare packaging will be people that we are close to, after all, the healthcare value chain is a small ecosystem.

Can you nominate someone for the SterileAware™ ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’? Absolutely! We can’t be everywhere and we’re not going to say that we know every company and person that pushes the needle forward in our industry, so if you have a candidate in mind, drop us an email we would love to hear their story…  info@sterileaware.com

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What does the ‘SterileAware™ inside’ label on your pouch sealer mean?

The ‘SterileAware™ inside’ label was created to let medical device manufacturers know that the labeled medical pouch sealer has technology that will aid in the validation of their packaging machinery. The type of componentry that will aid in the validation of the machinery will vary depending on the type of sealer.

Rotary sealers such as our model MD-850, MD-880, MD-4000, MD-5000, and Nanopak have alarmed and fixed function architecture. If the sealer is not reaching the set temperature as expected the device will not feed pouches to thwart low-temperature events on packaging material. Our roller pressure wheel is transducer set and monitored at 100 N to manage critical force. The Rotary conveyance system is set to a standard speed of 10 m/min. to produce consistent results. Each critical attribute can be calibrated or verified for a more robust installation qualification for your validation.

Impulse Sealers such as our models MS-350, MS-451, V-460, and OPL-series medical pouch sealers can be calibrated or verified for these three critical attributes, temperature, force, and time. Thermal calibration is performed with an internal algorithm on the microprocessor at six or more thermal zones in order to create higher accuracy at a variety of process thermal set points.  Force calibration can be performed with an external force gauge to assure that the device meets factory specifications and falls within the parameters of the stated force for your medical device packaging validation.  And finally, a time verification port on the microprocessor allows for the verification of the time signal on the microprocessor for your installation qualification.