AAMI

More than a decade ago, Dr. William Leiva, senior program manager of sterile reprocessing at Medtronic, observed something troubling. He noticed that some sterile barrier systems (SBS), like peel patches, looked “brittle” or “toasted” after sterilization.

Do disposable isolation gowns adequately protect health care workers? Researchers at ECRI recently published two open-access papers in AAMI’s peer-reviewed journal Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology (BI&T) on strikethrough and barrier test methods that included troubling findings.

The items that can affect the energy transfer are “wet” steam (i.e., too much condensed water in the steam usually caused by contamination in the steam) or steam that is superheated (steam that is too dry because it has been heated beyond its saturation point) creating a dry heat process. Both can result in a lack of sterilization.

At the Kilmer 2025 Conference in Orlando, a compelling discussion unfolded on the transformative impact of research grants provided by the AAMI Foundation. The conversation, hosted by Brian Stallard, director of AAMI News, featured Ralph Basile of the AAMI Foundation and guest Dr. William Levia, a two-time Kilmer grant recipient whose research is pushing boundaries in infection prevention and medical device safety.

Transportation of medical devices between facilities is increasingly the norm. Health care facilities often send instruments to offsite reprocessing centers miles away from the point of care. Keeping medical devices and medical device packaging intact and sterile during transportation can be a struggle.

That’s according to Dr. William Rutala, director of the Statewide Program for Infection Control and Epidemiology and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina. At the 2025 edition of the KILMER conference, Rutala took a wide-lens view of his field. Drawing on his decades of experience and more than 700 scientific publications, he discussed new sterilization technologies, surface disinfection, endoscope sterilization, ethylene oxide, and more.