The Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP) has announced that Ruth M. Carrico, PhD, Nurse Practitioner, FSHEA, CIC, will deliver the 2017 Dr John S. Zapp Memorial Lecture, the keynote address at the annual OSAP Conference to be held June 22 to 25, 2017, in Atlanta. Carrico will speak on June 23, in a talk titled “The Safest Dental Visit:  Preparing for the Future by Reimaging Infection Control.”

The OSAP conference brings together experts to discuss current and emerging issues relating to infection prevention and safety in oral healthcare settings, and provide attendees with resources, tools, and new approaches for better protecting patients and staff.

In her keynote address, Carrico will focus on the future and how dental care providers must change, collaborate, find new partners, and identify new ways of doing things in order to keep the promise of safe patient care while continuing to improve performance and the patient experience. Carrico will discuss how the changing ecology of human pathogens, increasing diversity of our workforce, emerging infections that represent transmission risks in all healthcare settings, and pressure to provide quality care at a lower cost may affect this patient promise.

Carrico is an associate professor and clinical director at the Vaccine and International Travel Center, Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She received her Masters from Webster University (MO), MSN from Northern Kentucky University, and PhD from California Coast University. Her areas of focus include infection control, immunization, international health and travel, vaccine research, refugee health, and global health.

Other items on this year’s agenda for the OSAP conference include sessions on the Orange County California Dental Clinic outbreak of Mycobacterium chelonae/abscessus (M. chelonae/abscessus), new instrument processing technologies, teaching and compliance aids for infection control, and late-breaking issues—topics so up-to-the-minute that they aren’t even identified until shortly before the conference convenes.

The conference also includes a wine and cheese reception sponsored by OSAP exhibitors, and the conference’s “Fun”d-raising Auction that gives participants an opportunity to bid on an array of items. The OSAP Conference also offers an optional tour of the David J. Sencer CDC Museum at the headquarters of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.