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Medical Grade Innovations Announces New, High Performance Scrub LineRIDGELAND, Miss. --(Business Wire)-- Medical Grade Innovations, (MGI) a subsidiary of R&T Fabric, LLC today announced the launch of its introductory line of healthcare professional attire through the company's new website and online store - www.medicalgradeinnovations.com. The initial product offering, the Medical Grade Scrub, is a bacteriostatic (stops the reproduction of bacteria), moisture wicking, odor repellant, and stain resistant scrub made from Milliken's (News - Alert) VisaEndurance® fabric. Murray Cohen, PhD, MPH, CIH, president of MGI's Science and Technology division, believes utilizing more functional garments and textiles in combination with unique systems for processing, usage, and data collection, may help one day contain some of the pathogen burden within healthcare facilities. Cohen is a retired U.S. Public Health Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and international expert on hospital safety. "We are living in a time of increased microbial resistance with an alarming 1 in 25 patients contracting an infection during a hospital stay," said MGI Science & Technology President, Murray Cohen, PhD, MPH, CIH. "Hospitals are increasingly aware and, moreover, incentivized to reduce the occurrence of hospital acquired infections, but much can be done at the level of the individual practitioner. Today's release of Medical Grade Scrub is a first step toward providing healthcare professionals with another level of protection for them and their patients." The Medical Grade Scrub remains 99.9% durably bacteriostatic against Staphylococcus Aureus and Klebsiella after 50 washings, as shown in AATCC Method 100 lab testing, and utilizes silver ion technology, which activates when in it comes in contact with the sodium in human perspiration. Bacteria in sweat take up the silver ions, which keep them from reproducing. The Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) recently acknowledged the lack of oversight on any regulated practices for healthcare professional attire and patient attire in a guidance published in February 2014's Infection Control and Epidemiology.1 The SHEA guidance stated that healthcare professional attire should take into account a balance of professional appearance, comfort, and practicality with the potential role of apparel in the cross-transmission of pathogens. One of the fundamental issues facing health care professionals who wash their work garments at home is that their washing machines cannot reach the temperatures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention2 (CDC) to correctly wash contaminated fabric. Home washers are set at 120 degrees per the Department of Energy's3 guidelines and the CDC recommend hospitals wash possibly contaminated linen at 165 degrees for 20 minutes. This creates the potential to reintroduce contaminated garments nto and out of the hospital each day, and demonstrates the need for garments that can be correctly washed at home. "Our team has 50 years of experience innovating new fabrics and technologies for a variety of industries. With the current national focus on improving healthcare, it made strategic sense for it to be our focus as well," said MGI CEO, Bert Rubinsky. "In the near future, these fabrics will act as a key component to multi-faceted programs, which with the help of Dr. Cohen, will address workplace, patient, environmental, and community safety issues." About Medical Grade Innovations (MGI) MGI believes that the overall wellness in healthcare and the community at-large can be improved, in part, by providing garments and textiles that protect healthcare professionals and their patients. Healthcare professionals are just like our other community heroes who face hazards on a daily basis. We realize that in order to improve an entire medical environment, we need to look at all of its components. The people entering and exiting, the physicians, the patients, the suppliers - and the list goes on. This is why MGI aims to research, train and commercialize advancements in a variety of fabrics, wellness systems and procedural applications in healthcare. In doing so, we hope to create and introduce programs that combine these new technologies and fabrics with unique worker, community, and supplier wellness initiatives. For more information, please visit: www.medicalgradeinnovations.com, like us on Facebook (News - Alert) at www.facebook.com/mginnovations, follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @MGInnovations and link to us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/medical-grade-innovations. About Dr. Murray Cohen, MPH, CIH Dr. Murray L. Cohen is President of Science and Technology for Medical Grade Innovations. Formerly, he served as Board Chairman of the Frontline Healthcare Workers Safety Foundation, Ltd. (a global NGO), and owner of Consultants in Disease and Injury Control (CDIC Inc., a veteran-owned small business.) Cohen was awarded a U.S. patent for bioweapons decontamination (anthrax.) He is currently working with the World Health Organization and other NGO's in low-resource countries in Africa, Asia, and South America, and engaging the global life science research communities regarding experiments deemed as dangerous dual use research of concern. Dr. Cohen was an inaugural voting member of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB), serving on that Presidential advisory body from 2005-2012. As Expert Consultant in Biosafety to the World Health Organization, he co-edited the WHO Laboratory Biosafety Manual 3rd ed., and the companion Global Train-the Trainer Manual. His international work has included developing model legislation for healthcare worker safety and laboratory biosafety, regulations and training for prevention of transmission of HIV/HBV/HCV, and predictive epidemiology for emerging pathogens and public health preparedness. He previously co-directed a USAID program on rural industrialization in Thailand, and has been a director of faith-based programs providing medical training, equipment, and supplies to Haiti and in Eastern Europe. Dr. Cohen has served on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Continuing Education and Training (IACET), and is a frequent speaker on laboratory and hospital safety training at international biosafety association symposia as an active member of the American Biological Safety Association, Asia-Pacific Biosafety Association, the International Federation of Biosafety Associations, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Cohen has testified before Congress regarding workplace safety for healthcare workers, has chaired numerous scientific panels and programs worldwide, and has appeared as a Fox News analyst regarding anthrax and ricin bioterrorism. His most recent technical publications focus on application of advanced methodologies for microbial risk assessment and hospital safety, and on international collaborations for biosafety research and training.
1 Bearman, G., Bryant, K., Leekha, S., Mayer, J.,
Munoz-Price, L.S., Murthy, R., Palmore, T., Rupp, M., White, J. "Expert
Guidance: Healthcare Personnel Attire in Non-Operating Room Settings." Infection
Control and Hospital Epidemiology 35:2 (February 2014)
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