AGNEW – Capping a career as a family doctor who has practiced from California to Kazakhstan, Marion Yandell has invented a small device he believes will knock down an enormous problem.
The Agnew man recently patented the NuGene — “as in ‘new generation,'” he said — a vial designed to keep injectable medications sterile.
The NuGene has the potential, Yandell said, to reduce hospital-acquired infections. These illnesses, also called nosocomial infections, are a leading cause of death across the United States.
Every year an estimated 1.7 million people catch these infections — which include staph and related blood-borne diseases — while in U.S. hospitals, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Of those, about 99,000 die.
Yandell, who practiced in Southern California for four decades, served missions in Mexico, eastern Europe and elsewhere and retired in 1996 to Agnew, began concentrating two years ago on a device that would protect intravenous drugs from what he describes as “microbe-laden” air in hospitals.
He explains the need for the NuGene by giving a brief medical history lesson.
Contaminated air
“Before 1900, all medicines were kept in open jars and bottles, exposing the medicine to contaminated ambient air,” he said.
“Doctors realized this was not sterile, so rubber stoppers were put on medicine vials under sterile conditions. The contaminated ambient air problem was thought to be solved.
“It was not solved. It was just delayed. When the needle on the end of the syringe is inserted into a sterile medicine vial and medicine is withdrawn, this creates a partial vacuum,” and no more medicine can come into the syringe.
To address the vacuum problem, “doctors and nurses have been taught that before they insert the needle into the medicine vial, they must pull back on the plunger in the syringe. This action brings in contaminated ambient air.
“Then they stick the needle through the rubber stopper and push the ambient air inside the sterile vial. The medicine is no longer sterile.”
The NuGene, Yandell said, keeps air away from the medication with an internal bladder that expands as medicinal fluid is withdrawn by the needle.
It sounds simple, he acknowledges. And Yandell came up with the idea, he said, the way many inventors create solutions: by looking at the problem from a new angle.
Seeks manufacturer
Yandell, 83, must now find a manufacturer for the NuGene. He worked with Sequim attorney Jacques Dulin to move the device through the patent process.
At this point he is optimistic about selling his product through a pharmaceuticals company and believes NuGene could be in use in hospitals within a year.
If that happens, however, Yandell won’t be finished as an inventor. He’s also working on a device to keep needles sterile: a biconical structure that would protect their surfaces from ambient air.
But the doctor doesn’t posit that NuGene or the needle protector — or both – can eradicate hospital-acquired infections. His two designs are aimed at keeping injected drugs sterile, but other hospital conditions can trigger infections.
“The air people breathe, dirty hands and dirty instruments can all cause nosocomial diseases,” Yandell said.
Cassie Sauer, spokeswoman for the Washington State Hospital Association, said health care providers — and patients — are doing more to halt hospital infections.
“One of the biggest things we’re doing is working on hand-washing in hospitals,” Sauer said. “We know hand-washing habits aren’t where they should be . . . among doctors, nurses, aides and food-service workers.”
Patients themselves can be one of the most effective influences on hand-washing, she added, by simply asking their providers to do it and do it often.
Sauer herself used this method 16 months ago when she went into the hospital to give birth to her baby.
The resident physician remarked on something that had been written on her chart: “Patient is very interested in seeing us wash our hands.”
Limited antibiotics
Another way to combat hospital-acquired diseases: Prescribe antibiotics only when necessary.
Many patients ask for the drugs, believing they will help them recover from a nasty flu, Sauer said.
“They won’t help,” she said, noting that overprescribed antibiotics have led to drug-resistant infections.
Washington state hospitals are also placing renewed emphasis on keeping surgical sites clean, Sauer said.
“Patients are encouraged to wash [the site of the operation] with Hibiclens,” an antimicrobial skin cleanser, and to refrain from shaving the area since razors can nick the skin.
“We’re also trying to increase the rates of flu shots among health care providers,” she added. “Only half are getting regular flu shots,” and the hospital association is pushing for a much higher rate.
The state association has not kept track of hospital-acquired infections in Washington state, Sauer said, but beginning in December, the state Department of Health will be required to adhere to a new law mandating the reporting of such infections.
So in coming years, the state’s medical community will be armed with statistics and trend information.
As for Yandell’s device, Sauer agreed with the inventor that it would not wipe out the problem of nosocomial diseases.
“I am not at all discounting the invention,” she said, “but it sounds like it would prevent one subset of infections” only.
“It would be terrific,” Sauer added, “if it is proven to be successful.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.