APIC and IFIC: Transforming Healthcare Through Education: Empowering Infection Preventionists to Drive Change and Improve Patient Outcomes

Martin Kiernan has worked in infection prevention and control for 32 years in a variety of settings. He is Visiting Professor at the Richard Wells Research Centre at the University of West London, Conjoint Fellow at the University of Newcastle (New South Wales), Adjunct Honorary Research Fellow, Avondale University (New South Wales) and a Clinical Consultant to GAMA Healthcare. He holds Masters degrees in Public Health and Clinical Research and in 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of West London.

He is a former Nurse Consultant and Deputy Director of Infection Prevention and Control at Southport and Ormskirk NHS Trust in North-West England. In 2020 and 2021 during the COVID pandemic he worked as an Infection Prevention lead at the London Nightingale Hospital constructed inside an exhibition centre at the request of the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Martin was a member of the Department of Health (England) advisory committee on antimicrobial resistance, prescribing and healthcare-associated infection for ten years, is past president of the Infection Prevention Society (IPS) and was chair of the scientific program committee of the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) international conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Along with colleagues in Australia, he co-hosts a podcast series called ‘Infection Control Matters’ focusing on the latest research and other topical issues in infection prevention.

His research interests centre on environmental hygiene, healthcare-associated pneumonia and urinary catheter-associated infection. He has presented at many international conferences and has published over 60 papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals.