Speakers at Healthcare Cleaning Forum
Alexandra Peters
Scientific Lead for Clean Hospitals, Infection Control Programme and World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland
Dr. Alexandra Peters, PhD is the Scientific Lead for the Clean Hospitals Association, a global network dedicated to making healthcare safer through improved environmental hygiene. She is based at the University of Geneva Institute of Global Health.
She holds a PhD in Biomedical Science/Global Health and an MA in Science and Security. Her areas of expertise include healthcare environmental hygiene, hand hygiene, and health security. Alexandra has authored well over 45 peer-reviewed papers, and lectures internationally.
Didier Pittet, MD, MS, CBE
Director of the Infection Control Programme at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Chairman for Clean Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
Didier Pittet is the Hospital Epidemiologist and Director of the Infection Control Programme & World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Infection Prevention and Control and Antimicrobial Resistance, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Switzerland. He holds Honorary Professorships at Imperial College (London), Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Health Science (Hong Kong) and the First Medical School of the Fu (Shanghai). Professor Pittet is also a fellow of the Royal Medical Association (Ireland) and Honorary Member of the All-Russian Scientific Societies of Epidemiologists, Microbiologists and Parasitologists and the French Academy of Surgery.
Author and co-author of more than 500 publications in scientific journals and editor of the first textbook “Hand Hygiene – A Handbook for Medical Professionals” (Pittet, Boyce, Allegranzi, edition Wiley-Blackwell, 2017), Professor Pittet is a member of the editorial boards of many prestigious scientific journals, including The Lancet Infectious Diseases. He is also an editorial consultant for The Lancet. The books “Clean Hands Save Lives” (Editions L'Âge d'Homme, 2014), available in 19 languages and “Adapt to Adopt” (Editions Nouvelle Imprimerie Laballery, 2021) written by French writer Thierry Crouzet, and the documentary film "Clean Hands" (Aftermedia 2016, 8 languages) describe Didier Pittet's medical odyssey dedicated to the promotion of hand hygiene worldwide.
Professor Pittet is the recipient of several national and international honors including a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) awarded by Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II for services to the prevention of healthcare-associated infection in the UK (2007), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America Lectureship (2008), the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases' Award for Excellence (2009), the American Society for Microbiology (2016), the Robert Koch Award (2017) and the Pasteur Medal (2020).
Since 2005, Professor Pittet has been working closely with the WHO as the lead adviser of the First Global Patient Safety Challenge, whose Clean Care is Safer Care program is active in hospitals in 189 of the 195 UN member states. Professor Pittet conducts numerous research projects, in particular concerning the epidemiology, prevention and control of infections and the development of innovative strategies to improve hand hygiene compliance and the quality of patient care to promote their safety. He is also involved in numerous humanitarian projects. Professor Pittet is also credited with revolutionizing patient care processes in hospitals by replacing hand washing with soap and water with the systematic use of alcohol-based handrubs (ABHR) and spreading this change in practice to healthcare centers around the world. His work has also involved the donation of a patent-free ABHR solution formulation to the WHO to facilitate its global distribution at lower cost, leading to its inclusion in the WHO list of Essential Medicines in 2012.
In June 2020, Professor Pittet was appointed by the President of the French Republic, Mr. Emmanuel Macron, as president of an independent mission created to assess the management of the COVID-19 crisis and to better address the risks posed by the pandemic and delivered the report of this commission in May 2021. The mission’s primary objective was to assess the relevance, speed and proportionality of the French response in the management of the health, social and economic crises, in particular in comparison to other countries’ responses.
Andreas Voss
Professor and Chair, Medical Microbiology and Infection Control, UMCG
My personal mission within infection control - as an important part of patient safety - is to promote a healthy and safe environment by preventing the spread of MDROs and the transmission of infectious agents among patients and staff; and doing so in an efficient and cost effective manner, based on external and internal standards, keeping in mind the best ways to support my clinical colleagues and serve our patients and their families.
Bill Bassett
Bill Bassett is a pioneer in the healthcare cleaning industry. Group Director of the Interclean Group and iClean Technology, his business philosophy is centred around innovation and gathering people to dialogue, research and develop best products and practices which aid the important task of infection control and reducing HAI’s.
A passionate and engaging speaker, Bill offers futuristic thinking to people who are looking for sustainable cleaning solutions that deliver best practice every time.
Brett Mitchell
Professor Brett Mitchell is an internationally renowned clinician researcher in the field of infection prevention and control. He is Editor-in-Chief of Infection, Disease in Health, with appointments at Avondale University and the Central Coast Local Health District in Australia. Brett has a particular interest in providing high quality evidence to inform infection control practice, leading many clinical trials in this area. He has over 150 peer reviewed publications and has worked in a variety of positions in Australia and abroad.
Brett has received several prestigious national awards for his contributions, including an Order of Australia and Commonwealth Health Ministers award for excellence in health and medical research. Prof Mitchell has served on several national committees in Australia. His particular interest in infection control include environmental cleaning as well as the prevention of urinary tract infection and pneumonia.
Christoph Zimmermann
Certified AI-Trainer & founder of cre-AI-tive PULSE
Christoph Zimmermann has more than two decades of experience in building cleaning and hygiene in public washrooms. As a certified AI trainer and founder of cre-AI-tive PULSE, he now focuses on transforming AI-driven innovations into real business solutions using a use-case-specific approach. As an experienced industrial engineer, he has held several management positions at CWS Hygiene International and Vileda Professional, where he led teams and projects to customer and user-oriented solutions. His commitment to the use of AI in practice makes him a key driver for the future of healthcare cleaning and business efficiency.
Clare Nash
Clare Nash has been a registered nurse for 31 years, specialising in cardiothoracic and general critical care, and is now leading on sustainable clinical procurement. She currently works as Head of Clinical Products Management for the Black Country Alliance Procurement Team working across two English Acute NHS Trusts.
Her Masters degree in leadership and management of change was the grounding for her to win awards that include implementing real-time tracking of patients and staff to improve contact tracing, and for her recent work in sustainable procurement.
Her most recently published papers include “Time to act: what nurses can do to reduce the environmental burden of PPE” and “Is it really greener, a tool for choosing sustainable clinical products” and she is passionate about sharing the small changes nursing and healthcare staff can make to reduce the NHS carbon footprint.
Clare is determined to use her clinical expertise and influence to improve the sustainability of health and social care, and works with the Royal College of Nursing and UK Health Alliance on Climate Change to support clinicians in delivering greener healthcare.
Her X /Twitter handle is @Clarenash20
Edmée Bowles
Clinical microbiologist, head of Infection Prevention and Control at Radboudumc
After graduation from medical school, Edmée Bowles, trained as tropical doctor and worked as Medical Officer in rural hospitals in East Africa. It was there that her interest in infectious diseases and microbiology was sparked. After 5 years she returned to the Netherlands and started her specialization in clinical microbiology at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. After finishing her specialization she worked as clinical microbiologist, with special interest in infection prevention. Since 2020 she is head of the infection prevention team at the Radboudumc in Nijmegen.
Well-implemented infection prevention programs in hospitals are essential to combat the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Cleaning and disinfection is an often underestimated, but essential part of this.
Els Rooijakkers
Infection Control Expert Groene Hart Hospital Gouda
Els has a varied background in both practice as wel as in study. After starting as a medical laboratory technician in micobiological and clinical chemistry laboratories she worked as a teacher in mathematics. Furthermore she studied Environmental sciences (OU Heerlen). For fifteen years she is now an Infection Control Expert with a focus on education and disinfection.
Mariëtte Lokate
Mariëtte Lokate is an Infection Prevention Specialist and Epidemiologist at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). In 2008, she completed her studies in Health Sciences at the Free University Amsterdam and earned a Master of Science degree in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology. In 2012, she obtained her PhD at Utrecht University, where she also achieved a Master of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology. Since 2012, Mariëtte has been dedicated to her role within the Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention Department at the UMCG. Her professional portfolio encompasses the responsibilities of an Infection Prevention Specialist, alongside her research activities, which include investigating the transmission of microorganisms through various environmental pathways.
Martin Kiernan
Visiting Professor, Visiting Clinical Fellow, Richard Wells Research Centre, UK
Martin has worked in infection prevention and control for 32 years in a variety of settings. He is a Visiting Professor at the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London, Conjoint Fellow at the University of Newcastle and Avondale Universities (New South Wales, Australia). Formerly he was Nurse Consultant and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust in the North-West of England.
Martin is a past president of the Infection Prevention Society, a past member of the Department of Health (England) advisory committee on Antimicrobial Resistance Prescribing and Healthcare-Associated Infection (ARPHAI for ten years), and was scientific secretary of the Healthcare Infection Society International Conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2018. In 2020 he was awarded honorary membership of the Healthcare Infection Society and in 2023 was awarded the Ayliffe Lifetime Achievement Award by the Infection Prevention Society.
His research interests focus on environmental hygiene, surveillance and urinary catheter-associated infections. He has presented at many international conferences and has published over 80 papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Paul Harleman
Global Application Manager | Vileda Professional
Paul has worked in professional cleaning since 1985 at multinationals and smaller companies. As an application expert he develops cleaning concepts, is a part of the customer- and product development group and the intermediair between user and product developer. He publishes columns and articles in (inter)national professional cleaning media, moderates webinars and events. Member of the technical committee of the Dutch Association for Cleaning Research. Specialised in cleaning applications within the healthcare sector.
Pierre Parneix, MD
Public Health and Hospital Hygiene Doctor at Bordeaux Hospital University Center (CHU), France
Public health and hospital hygiene doctor at the Bordeaux University Hospital since 1992. He has been responsible for the Regional Healthcare-Associated Infections Control Center in Nouvelle Aquitaine since 2017.
He was President of the French Society of Hospital Hygiene (SF2H) from June 2015 to June 2019 and took care of the international relations of the SF2H for 10 years. In October 2021, Pierre Parneix became President of SF2H again.
He is the Education Director of the Clean Hospitals project led by Professor Didier Pittet.
He was one of the 5 members of the National Independent Mission on the evaluation of the management of the Covid-19 crisis and on the anticipation of pandemic risks set up in June 2020 by President Emmanuel Macron.
You can follow him on Twitter @peyo3319