PACKAGING RESOURCE CENTER: SHOW COVERAGE
Known for its annual tradition of keeping medical device manufacturers updated on the essentials, HealthPack will offer attendees useful news on packaging standards and regulations. This year, however, HealthPack 2008 will open with one of industry’s most important customers—nurses. Mary Jo Steiert, president of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), will present the keynote, “Insights into the Clinical Usage, Problems, and Opportunities for Medical Device Packagers: A Nurse’s Perspective.”
Show partner IoPP (the Institute of Packaging Professionals) will then present the results of its nurses survey conducted with AORN’s assistance. Jennifer Neid, CPP, chair of IoPP’s Medical Device Packaging Technical Committee Education Task Group, will share the survey’s findings on medical device packaging. IoPP solicited questions last fall from industry in order to uncover nurses’ most pressing needs. “If a nurse can’t figure out how to open a package quickly and easily, it may be opened improperly,” says Neid, who serves as upper Midwest/Canadian account manager for TOLAS Healthcare Packaging, an Oracle Packaging Co. Such a situation could “render the device unsterile.”
HealthPack will also bring the medical packaging winners of the 2007 Ameristar awards to the podium. Kevin R. O’Brien, Ethicon Endo-Surgery’s staff package engineer, will speak about the firm’s MRI Tube Set Package, while Robert Argentero, Gettinge Group, will discuss Boston Scientific Corp.’s Clear Die Cut Package Insert from its Vascular Surgery group.
PMP News editorial advisory board members Jordan Montgomery, principal packaging engineer, Medtronic Inc., and Scholla, ISO TC198/WG7 Global Convener, DuPont, will also speak. Montgomery will address packaging for drug/device combination products, while Scholla will offer perspective on what EC Notified Bodies expect in terms of compliance to EN/ISO 11607-1:2006 and -2.
Testing for compatibility between device and package material will be addressed by Diona Sommario, Boston Scientific Corp. Test methods for sterile package integrity will be presented by Steve Franks, T.M. Electronics, while Eric Joneson, Lansmont Corp., and president-elect of ISTA, will discuss developing global thermal profiles. Hal Miller, Pace Solutions LLC, will discuss risk analysis.
Updates on global standards will be given by Pat Nolan, DDL Labs, and chair of ASTM Committee D10; Michael Troedel, ASTM fellow, Michael Troedel & Associates and past committee chair of ASTM Committee F02 Flexible Barrier Packaging; and Jackie Daly Johnson, Beacon Converters, and Nick Fotis, Cardinal Healthcare, co-chairs of the U.S. Delegation to ISO TC198/WG7.
HealthPack will take place March 46 at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX. For more details, visit www.healthpack.net.
