AseptiScope’s First Patient Safety Innovation Helps Hospitals Save Lives

AseptiScope is a pioneering healthcare innovation company dedicated to solving critical problems in infection control through practical, technology-based solutions. The company was founded by a team of experienced healthcare leaders with a strong history of successful innovation. Among them is CEO Scott Mader, who has spent a career introducing clinical innovations in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and diagnostics. With a shared vision to improve patient safety, Mader and his confounders now have developed the first solution for a major contributor to Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI); stethoscope contamination. The stethoscope is the most prolific patient assessment tool in medicine, and the point of patient contact (the diaphragm) carries pathogens equal to unwashed hands. Yet stethoscope cleaning Between patients has not been effective.

Recognizing this, AseptiScope designed an immediate, affordable, fully effective solution that prevents direct contact between the stethoscope and the patient. Their flagship product, the DiskCover System, is a touch-free technology that applies a perfectly clean, single-use barrier on the stethoscope immediately prior to the exam. This innovative approach is also documented in medical literature publicly available in an impressive online library (www.diskcover.com). The San Diego start-up is ramping up its assembly to accommodate an increasing number of hospitals and healthcare providers who recognize the significant risk dirty stethoscopes have on patient safety. “It is as important as hand hygiene, and we finally have a solution that protects patients without taxing our clinical staff,” says Frank Peacock, MD, a broadly published expert who recently met with experts at the CDC on the same topic.

In conversation with Scott Mader, Founder and CEO of AseptiScope

The DiskCover™ System is a game-changer in infection prevention. What specific healthcare challenges does it address that were previously overlooked?

There has never been a solution that ensures a fully clean point of contact for the stethoscope. Of the many challenges we have overcome, this is the biggest advance with our technology. The DiskCover System is the first technology designed to resolve an underlying infection control and patient safety problem that has plagued healthcare for generations. We now know that the stethoscope is transmitting pathogens with the same frequency as unwashed hands. These highly resistant “superbugs” exist on the chest piece of the stethoscope (diaphragm) and move from patient to patient during examinations. Hospitals today have strict policies and procedures for hand hygiene, but no such policies exist for the stethoscope as it transmits the exact same pathogens as unwashed hands, undermining patient safety.  The DiskCover System integrates easily, placing a clean, protective barrier on the stethoscope in a second. This barrier is impervious to pathogens yet acoustically invisible, allowing perfect sound clarity. This completely resolves the patient safety challenge without altering the pace or quality of care. Patients love this because they can witness for themselves that the hospital is protecting them.

Stethoscope contamination has often been neglected in hospital protocols. What insights or data led AseptiScope to prioritize this critical issue?

The last 20 years have seen an explosion of studies that have exposed the stethoscope as a strong contributor to superbugs being passed from patient to patient. Stethoscopes are touching US patients over 5 billion times a year, and with each unclean exam, dangerous “superbugs” are passed between patients.  Increasingly, these pathogens are resistant to cleaning with alcohol or other disinfectants.  Studies have now unveiled that the stethoscope is a very efficient vector for transmitting these pathogens, and time and process to clean between patients does not exist. Hospitals have been waiting for a solution that is immediate, fully effective, easy, and affordable. The DiskCover System is the only solution designed and validated to accomplish this patient safety milestone.

As customers integrate The DiskCover System into patient care, do you anticipate there will be a shift in patient safety as a result?

YES, in fact, earlier than expected our customers are now reporting their own results, and the impact on patient safety is exciting, their own results with this unique innovation, and the impact on patient safety is clear. I just returned from a large critical care conference where one of our customers presented data showing unprecedented impact by reducing a life-threatening type of infection known as “Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI).  A team of innovative infection prevention experts in Memphis paid close attention to the literature on stethoscope contamination and integrated our system into their infection control protocol. Stethoscope hygiene is clearly needed here, but there has not been a solution until now. This team presented new data showing that, by integrating The DiskCover System, they not only lowered CLABSI rates, but eradicated these life-threatening events, and have kept them from recurring. They are the first to show the importance of stethoscope hygiene, but also the ability to do this in a way that is rapid, easy, and visible for care providers, patients and their family.

Was this new data a “game changer” for the technology?

Well yes, it is, but even more impressively it is causing a sea-change in how healthcare providers can protect patients from deadly infections.  We now have the three factors necessary to make a real impact on patient safety. Overwhelming data now shows that the stethoscope should be prioritized like hand hygiene from an infection control standpoint. There is now a scientifically proven solution that is being integrated into practice. Thirdly, there are visionary clinicians who have integrated it into care with a startling impact on patient safety.

As you ramp up with The DiskCover System, what does the future hold for AseptiScope?

We remain laser focused on the successful introduction of The DiskCover System as a new gold standard for stethoscope hygiene, and my co-founder Kelly Powers and her operations and engineering team have us in a new facility to meet the demand of a healthcare market that has a much-needed solution to this problem.  We also have international distributors qualified and awaiting The DiskCover System markets around the world.

The unique and protected features of this solution are also being engaged by other critical vectors that transmit pathogens and do not have a fully effective solution. This ranges from the first fully effective hand hygiene solution to the emerging challenge of ultrasound probes, where imaging with patient probes that are highly contaminated. We are thrilled to be able to help in the mission to save lives, save time, and reduce the cost of care.

“Hospitals today have no policy for stethoscope hygiene, and in fact these pathogens are often resistant to cleaning.”