Sharing successes, challenges and daily happenings in the Department of Medicine
On March 14, the BCU published its first manuscript describing a new methodology to study how infectious pathogens travel through our clinical space. In partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, we used a cough machine named “Barney” to recreate a human cough composed of fluorescent microbeads. We then used sensors placed throughout the(...)
On Tuesday, February, the Biocontainment Unit hosted the National Ebola Training Center (NETEC) for its annual site assessment. Representatives from Nebraska Medical, Emory and New York Bellevue hospitals came together to discuss the progress the Johns Hopkins BCU has made in the last year and observed BCU staff in a full scale exercise, the Ocho(...)
The BCU is excited to be a 2018 recipient of the Fisher Center Discovery Program grant. Brian Garibaldi and Lauren Sauer were awarded the grant for their project entitled, “Environmental transmission and traceability of aerosolized bio-simulants in a clinical biocontainment unit." The grant will allow the BCU to continue its partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab(...)
Brian Garibaldi, assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and medical director of the Biocontainment Unit (BCU), and Lauren Sauer, assistant professor in Emergency Medicine and director of research for the BCU, received a 2018 Fisher Center Discovery Program (FCDP) grant for their project "Environmental transmission and traceability of aerosolized bio-simulants in a clinical biocontainment(...)
On November 30, the BCU conducted its latest quarterly drill. The drill involved a pregnant patient who went into labor in the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Clinic, but was quickly identified as suspect for an unknown, novel and highly pathogenic respiratory illness. As such, the patient was transported via LifeLine in an IsoPod to the BCU.(...)
The BCU would like to introduce a new feature of the blog this month, the BCU Spotlight. We will use the spotlight to highlight the contributions of members of the BCU team. This month’s spotlight features BCU nurse superuser Sam Gutner. We are excited for our hospital-wide drill on November 30. We will simulate the(...)
The BCU is excited to announce two additions to our leadership team! Jennifer Andonian has been appointed the interim BCU program manager. Jen was recently named one of HEIC’s senior infection preventionists. She has served as one of our HEIC BCU leads for the last two years and has played a large role in our success over(...)
This past month the BCU hosted its first quarterly staff meeting of the new academic year. During the meeting, BCU team members received a global update on highly infectious diseases as well as a summary of recent BCU activities. We rounded out the quarterly staff activities with crabs at Nick’s Fish House in celebration of(...)
This past month the BCU continued our engagement with the National Ebola Training and Education Center (NETEC) by sending two of our providers to a pediatric training session at Texas Children’s Hospital. Riley and Grace participated in live action simulation with providers from across the country and their lessons learned will help us to continue to(...)
On June 27-28, over a dozen members of the BCU team traveled to Emory University to participate in the second annual National Ebola Training and Education Center Summit. As the HHS Region 3 Ebola and Special Pathogens Treatment Center, the BCU team shared our experiences over the last year with a particular focus on the strides we(...)