IPC Innovation Forums is a new webinar series created to showcase solutions to real IPC problems. Each Forum will focus on a challenge within IPC and organisations will present their technology or solution before facing questions from our panel and audience - think Dragon's Den meets IPC...
This innovation forum has been curated by HIS Special Interest Group SPARC and is part of World AMR Awareness Week 2026.
The scientific challenge
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) can persist within hospital water systems, including sinks, drains and associated plumbing, creating reservoirs that may be difficult to detect and control. These environments may also contribute more broadly to the persistence and dissemination of antimicrobial-resistant organisms and resistance determinants. The challenge is understanding when these environmental reservoirs represent a meaningful transmission risk, how they can be identified and characterised effectively, and what interventions can prevent them from contributing to outbreaks. Current approaches to surveillance and control can be reactive, and important questions remain around detection, source attribution and effective intervention.
The forum will explore technologies and practical approaches that could improve the detection, characterisation, surveillance and control of CPE within the hospital water environment, while considering the wider implications for antimicrobial resistance.
Meet the speakers:
Peter Kinnevey, Assistant Professor in Microbiology and IPC, Dublin Dental University Hospital (Chair)
Liam Burke, Associate Professor, University of Galway
Chloe Pinkney, Clinical Development Specialist, BioMérieux
Companies interested in taking part to showcase their innovation/technology, please email colette.connolly@his.org.uk. A participation fee applies. Sponsorship does not influence the selection or curation of webinar content, which is determined independently by HIS.
Registration
The webinar will be delivered on Zoom and is free to attend.
A recording of the live webinar will be made available via the HIS website for the a limited time, with extended access granted to HIS members