Keicha Brock, CSPM, CFER, MBA

Awarded for her outstanding work helping hospitals build better sterile processing department, through her passion for precision.

Jennifer (Neid) Benolken, CPPL

Awarded for her amazing work with KiiP (Kilmer innovations in Packaging) Jennifer’s warm energy has inspired many to join and work in this group.

Beyond Clean

Awarded for their amazing awareness effort regarding SPD workers challenges and all the educational content created on the beyond clean podcast.

VA Hospital, Birmingham Alabama

Awarded for recognizing the need to upgrade packaging systems in their SPD department to assure better patient safety by reducing risk of HAI’s.

Karen Goelst

Awarded for her amazing work with KleenEdge and the innovative solutions she has developed to help manage HAI risks in hospitals and clinics.

Henk Blom PhD

Awarded for his energetic contribution to KiiP (Kilmer innovations in Packaging) and his willingness to always do more than his share.

So, what does the selection process for the SterileAware™ ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’ look like? Does it require a core educational level or baseline years in the industry or published work? The answer is none of the above. The superstars that we seek are the hard-working, big-hearted individuals that put in the extra time and effort to make a difference in patient safety. 

I have been in medical device development for 30 years and in medical packaging for about 27 years. Over these decades I have connected with thousands of individuals and companies that serve the sterile device delivery space. The ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’ gives me, my colleagues, and you as well the opportunity to recognize the people that are making worthwhile contributions. This includes everything from medical device manufacturers, healthcare processing and packaging professionals as well as all the healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics that support a patient’s safe journey through a healthcare facility.

Through our street-level observations, we will identify standout superstars and avoid the multi-layers of the bureaucracy of traditional Industry awards. We believe this will democratize the recognition process and give much-deserved credit to healthcare value chain superstars that may fall under the radar if not nominated under other industrial award platforms.

So, will we be awarding colleagues that we have a close relationship with that some may call “Friends”? Of course, we will however never play the cronyism game. It is very likely that the people being recognized for their outstanding service in healthcare packaging will be people that we are close to, after all, the healthcare value chain is a small ecosystem.

Can you nominate someone for the SterileAware™ ‘Superstars in Sterile Awareness award’? Absolutely! We can’t be everywhere and we’re not going to say that we know every company and person that pushes the needle forward in our industry, so if you have a candidate in mind, drop us an email we would love to hear their story…  info@sterileaware.com

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What does the ‘SterileAware™ inside’ label on your pouch sealer mean?

The ‘SterileAware™ inside’ label was created to let medical device manufacturers know that the labeled medical pouch sealer has technology that will aid in the validation of their packaging machinery. The type of componentry that will aid in the validation of the machinery will vary depending on the type of sealer.

Rotary sealers such as our model MD-850, MD-880, MD-4000, MD-5000, and Nanopak have alarmed and fixed function architecture. If the sealer is not reaching the set temperature as expected the device will not feed pouches to thwart low-temperature events on packaging material. Our roller pressure wheel is transducer set and monitored at 100 N to manage critical force. The Rotary conveyance system is set to a standard speed of 10 m/min. to produce consistent results. Each critical attribute can be calibrated or verified for a more robust installation qualification for your validation.

Impulse Sealers such as our models MS-350, MS-451, V-460, and OPL-series medical pouch sealers can be calibrated or verified for these three critical attributes, temperature, force, and time. Thermal calibration is performed with an internal algorithm on the microprocessor at six or more thermal zones in order to create higher accuracy at a variety of process thermal set points.  Force calibration can be performed with an external force gauge to assure that the device meets factory specifications and falls within the parameters of the stated force for your medical device packaging validation.  And finally, a time verification port on the microprocessor allows for the verification of the time signal on the microprocessor for your installation qualification.