COVID-19 has brought infection control and respiratory health to the forefront of workplace safety and as such, businesses are seeking guidelines on how to keep customers and employees safe. This webinar, featuring infectious disease specialists, medical doctors and a corporate medical advisor, will educate on an important, but often overlooked, infection control measure that’s well-established in hospitals and clinically proven to reduce infection rates: sanitizing the nose.
Learning objectives for this webinar include:
Dr. Michael J. Manyak is a medical doctor, corporate medical executive, author, explorer, and an expert on health, safety and security while traveling. He serves as the chief medical advisor for crisis response and travel medicine for multiple Fortune 500 companies and for the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Dr. Manyak has an avid interest in expedition medicine and is a consultant to the National Geographic Society; he was also a national board member for The Explorers Club for a decade. Dr. Manyak’s experience includes serving on the NASA Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health Advisory Committee, where he was responsible for the care of US astronauts. He is a former professor of urology, engineering, microbiology, immunology and tropical medicine at The George Washington University and was profiled by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of “The Best and Brightest of Washington.”
Dr. Anusha Belani is an infectious disease specialist based in Frederick, MD with over 30 years of experience. Dr. Belani dedicated her career to meticulous care of her patients and has conducted research in catheter-related infections and reduction in hospital-acquired infections, including Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections (an infection most often caused by the use of antibiotics that leads to diarrhea and inflammation of the colon). As Frederick Health Hospital’s epidemiologist, Dr. Belani devoted her time to pioneering projects related to antibiotic stewardship, cost containment and employee health-related issues. She spearheaded institutional C. diff rounds, leading to the lowest rates of C. diff infection in the state of Maryland. In addition, her efforts to enforce universal hand hygiene, nasal decolonization and chlorhexidine bathing in the surgical population led to the lowest levels of surgical site infections in Frederick’s history. Dr. Belani is now an active consultant for Frederick Health’s Infection Control program.
With more than 30 years of experience in the field of infection prevention, Sue Barnes is a nationally recognized infection prevention leader and currently serves as an advisor and consultant for select industry partners and has provided consultative assistance to numerous professional organizations, including the Association for Professionals In Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). She previously served as the national infection prevention director for Kaiser Permanente for 27 years before retiring in 2016. Barnes has helped develop a number of infection prevention guides for APIC and has published numerous articles, including in the AORN Journal, American Journal of Infection Control, The Joint Commission Source for Compliance Strategies and The Permanente Journal. She served on the national APIC board of directors from 2010 to 2012 and the San Francisco, California APIC chapter board of directors from 2007–2017.
Dr. Ron Singer is an orthopedic surgeon who has devoted his career to refining and teaching surgeons across the world safe surgical procedures and new techniques for the benefit of patients. He currently practices general orthopedics, joint replacements and sports medicine at OrthoCarolina in Charlotte, NC—one of the largest, most comprehensive orthopedic practices in the nation. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Board for The Surgery Center at Edgewater, a high quality outpatient surgery care center in South Carolina that he helped develop from the ground up. Dr. Singer has served on the advisory boards of several organizations throughout his 30-year medical career, including Winston Hospitality, Avanos Medical, and Smith and Nephew. He has been named one of Charlotte’s Top Docs by Charlotte Magazine.
As chief science officer for Global Life Technologies Corporation (GLTC), Dr. Ernst Spannhake leads laboratory and clinical research and development at the medical technology company and maker of Nozin® branded Nasal Sanitizer® products. Prior to joining GLTC, Dr. Spannhake served as a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in Baltimore for more than 35 years. He has authored over 100 scientific articles and chapters and his research interests are focused on the interactions of the airway epithelium with chemical and biological agents. Additionally, he has studied the microbiome of the anterior nares (skin inside the nostrils) and its role in hospital-acquired infection risk. He retains his affiliation with Johns Hopkins as Professor Emeritus.
