Editor’s note: Allison Rak is the CEO of Vatoca, an insights and innovation firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Years ago a friend was hired for an entry-level job at a government agency. Her first role was pretty mundane – she was assigned to study satellite images of caves in Afghanistan. A few months into the job, 9/11 happened and Osama bin Laden was thought to be hiding in one of those caves. Suddenly, much to her surprise, my friend’s obscure expertise became one of the most relevant skill sets around.

Another friend is a sociologist with a Ph.D. on race. He’s been studying and teaching on the subject for years, and recently launched a consulting firm dedicated to teaching individuals and corporations how to recognize their privilege. His work has always been relevant and interesting, but is suddenly extraordinarily valuable and in-demand.

For years, I’ve been doing research with a relatively obscure subset of the health care industry: infection preventionists (IPs.) These are the folks whose jobs and lives are dedicated to reducing and eliminating the spread of infection in health care settings. Like my friends mentioned above, their work has always been important and valuable, but as our world has suddenly changed, IPs’ place in it has changed as well. If you aren’t yet aware of what an IP does and why you should be talking with them, now might be the time to learn. 

Serving an important role

When I first started working with IPs they were called ICs or ICPs, which stood for infection control practitioners. An individual hospital tended to have one or two ICs – often working in a closet-like office in the basement of the building – who seemed to spend a good portion of their day monitoring people’s compliance with protocols such as hand hygiene. An IC may have been a bit of an unsung hero who toiled away serving an important, if unappreciated role. 

Over the past 10 years or so a series of regulatory changes have resulted in a dramatic shift in the role and stature of infection control and prevention in hospitals. First came a change limiting Medicare reimbursement for infections acquired in hospitals, for the first time putting a dollar value on the cost of an infection. This was followed by some changes brought about by the Affordable Care Act that further financially incentivizes hospitals to reduce their rates of infection. Combine these changes with an overall trend in health care toward consolidation and a more systems-based approach that includes not only acute hospitals but also outpatient clinics, surgery centers and more, and we saw the role of the IP evolve from an individual contributor to a function – a critically important one at that. Now, with COVID-19 dictating so much in our world, the IPs role is once again more important than ever before. 

Any product looking to play a role in a hospital setting – from high-tech surgical instruments to furniture and trash cans – will likely be evaluated by an IP. IPs serve on product review and value analysis committees, are involved in overseeing construction projects and are an important voice as hospital systems grow and evolve. They are hugely influential as they lend a keen eye toward potential impact on the spread of infection and as such, the true cost of that product or project. 

Conducting research with IPs before trying to launch a product into a hospital setting is beyond prudent. As you look to do so, here are some things to know based on my years of experience in IP research: 

  1. IPs know their stuff, and are trained to fill in any knowledge gaps. This makes methodology choice crucial. They are great fun in focus groups because they are whip smart, not afraid to speak up and can process a lot of information quickly. I find that I can get through about two-to-three times as much content in an IP group than a typical consumer group. Be wary of asynchronous methodologies, however, because IPs can’t help but look up information they don’t already know. If you want to find out current perceptions and understanding about the latest superbug, don’t ask on a bulletin board unless you provide really specific instructions because they will likely Google first, answer second. 
  2. IPs need data. When you show stimuli, be prepared to back it up with data and studies. If you don’t have those yet, then be prepared to set the stage in a way that will make them comfortable offering their thoughts and opinions without having all that they need. While it’s fairly easy to enable a consumer to temporarily set aside objections by saying something like “assume that this prototype is functioning the way I’m describing,” with an IP you may need to say: “assume for a moment that you have a peer-reviewed study that confirms all of the statements in this description.” Even then, it will be difficult for them to do so. 
  3. Just as in other industries, IPs work at different levels, from a junior IP who focuses mostly on tracking hospital data, to the senior corporate IP who sits on product review committees. Some IPs are CIC-certified, indicating that they have a higher level of knowledge and education. They’re all valuable, but you need to know this context to recruit the right IP for your project. Be aware that if you have a dramatic mix of experience levels in a group, the more junior IPs will often defer to their more experienced colleagues.
  4. IPs come from various backgrounds, most commonly nursing and/or epidemiology. But we’ve found that once they become an IP they tend to stay in their role a long time. Whereas in other professions someone with three years of experience is practically an industry veteran, an IP with three years of experience will tell you that they are still new to their job. There is so much to learn, and IPs tend to avoid cutting corners or feel satisfied until they know just about everything.
  5. IPs work long hours and are extremely busy, particularly now. They’re willing to participate in research, but it has to be meaningful and worth their while. Given their other priorities at the moment, you may need to be flexible with your timelines and project parameters.
  6. Unlike some other personalities in health care, IPs tend to have modest egos. As smart, influential and important as they are, they are earnest in their responses and are more about learning than trying to prove that they are right. This makes for refreshingly authentic insights. 
  7. IPs see things others don’t. This is not to say they have a sixth sense, but even those of us who have been working in this space for many years find ourselves surprised by an IP perspective, sometimes leading to a dramatic change in a product’s direction and a sigh of relief that we asked.

A valuable function

IP research is not easy, but it’s incredibly valuable and worthwhile. IPs may point out a crucial design flaw or packaging consideration that is easy to fix up front, but would kill a product’s likelihood of acceptance if not addressed. If you are working in the health care space, it will serve you well to get to know this incredibly valuable, if unassuming, function.