Breakthrough technology in sterilization assurance — with a personal impact

When Doug Bartlett rushed to the hospital after a chainsaw accident in 2023, he never expected to end up fighting for his life — or that he’d eventually work for the company whose products were key to his recovery and contribute to innovations that enhance patient safety.

Following the October accident that nearly severed four fingers, Doug endured a trauma surgery that saved his left hand. But just weeks after returning home post-surgery, a pain began throbbing beneath the wrap covering his incisions.

By Christmas, he was an ICU patient fighting for life with a PICC line pumping five different antibiotics into his heart. Doug spent the next 10 weeks recovering from two serious surgical site infections (SSIs), silent and dangerous complications that affected the recovery of more than 160,000 patients in the U.S. that year.

When he later joined Solventum, Doug came with a first-hand understanding of how one healthcare department stands as a critical, yet often unseen, cornerstone of patient safety: Central Sterile Supply Departments (CSSDs).

CSSDs at the core of care

For CSSDs, the stakes are high, and the work is critical.

“Their [CSSDs’] work forms an invisible shield that helps protect against surgical site infections or SSIs that can have an impact on patient outcomes and quality of care,” says Solventum Division Scientist Dr. Marco Bommarito, an innovator in sterile processing technology. “They shoulder the profound responsibility of ensuring the tools and instruments used in patient care are free from microorganisms — a duty that requires unwavering precision.”

But the landscape is challenging. CSSDs must balance increasing demands for productivity with strict adherence to rigorous protocols and standards. When an SSI occurs and instruments are recalled for reprocessing, CSSDs lose, on average, four hours of sterile processing time,¹ costing up to $60 a minute.²

“In infection prevention, proactive measures offer the strongest defense. Timely detection of sterilizer malfunction is paramount to ensuring operational efficiency and patient safety,” says Dr. Bommarito.

Hearing the need to simplify and streamline CSSD workflows to support patient safety, Solventum’s Dr. Bommarito, Product Development Specialist Dr. Wensheng Xia and their team set out to solve.

The enhanced analytics that can help CSSDs create safer healthcare environments

Our team knew the labor-intensive processes inherent to analog tests that assess the performance of steam dynamic-air removal sterilizers could be automated. This enables digital integration and improved data and insights that can be used to optimize sterilization cycles. With enhanced analytics, CSSDs can pinpoint and address hidden and expensive inefficiencies, potentially saving time and reducing processing costs. That’s where our game-changing innovation comes in.

The Attest™ eBowie-Dick Test System* (eBowie-Dick System) from Solventum is a first-to-market sterilization assurance solution with novel add-on data analytics technology developed in partnership with Ascendco Health, one of the fastest-growing sterilization data analytics and instrument tracking companies in the U.S.

The eBowie-Dick System is the only steam equipment test with digital capabilities that is designed to seamlessly integrate into a hospital’s instrument tracking system. “This unique combination can provide an early warning mechanism, enabling preemptive intervention and minimizing the risk of reactive downtime, which safeguards the integrity of the sterilization process,” explains Dr. Bommarito.

Unplanned sterilizer maintenance and instrument recalls and reprocessing can create a ripple effect across the entire hospital, impacting surgery schedules and the smooth delivery of patient care.

“By providing CSSDs with actionable intelligence and greater control of their workflows, we are empowering sterile processing departments to enable more reliable and ultimately safer patient care,” says Doug, now senior vice president of infection prevention and surgical solutions at Solventum.

Linking sterilizer performance and instrument tracking data can also provide hospitals with better analytics to help improve quality assurance and compliance, which may lead to reduced sterility breaches and better inventory management.

“The result of our collaboration with Solventum marks a significant step forward, providing sterile processing departments with an unprecedented ability to digitally monitor and verify the efficacy of their steam sterilizers in direct correlation with instrument usage,” says Brian Reed, CEO of Ascendco Health. “The cutting-edge technology in the eBowie-Dick System empowers CSSDs to optimize sterilization cycles throughout the instrument use-cycle.”

The eBowie-Dick System and the add-on data analytics technology is available in the U.S. from authorized distribution partners. Solventum, in its ongoing partnership with Ascendco Health, will roll out the technology globally in 2025.*

Celebrating a milestone — for our industry and for Doug

The launch of the eBowie-Dick System feels personal for Doug, who deeply understands that the work of CSSDs has profound implications. "For over 30 years, Solventum has delivered world-class, consistently reliable monitoring solutions for sterilization professionals. We understand the gravity and impact of their work and are dedicated to creating the advanced tools they need to improve accuracy, save time and bolster patient safety," he says.

And his personal commitment to this mission is unwavering. “You could say that joining Solventum was a full-circle moment for me, one that affords me the opportunity to help ensure that my patient experience is a rare anomaly,” says Doug.