In healthcare settings, ensuring the cleanliness of medical instruments and working space is a critical step in infection prevention. However, even after thorough cleaning and disinfection, microscopic residues can remain — especially residual proteins, which are invisible to the naked eye but can pose significant risks to patient safety.
Residual protein contamination on medical devices is a significant concern that can persist despite cleaning, and developing accurate methods to detect and quantify these proteins is important for improving reprocessing validation in hospitals and sterile services departments.¹
Residual protein can remain on reusable medical devices after reprocessing, even when cleaning protocols are followed; hence why protein testing may be needed to ensure cleanliness beyond what visual inspection alone can guarantee.2This is why international standards set clear expectations for cleaning validation and protein testing as part of routine quality assurance.
Healthcare professionals are turning to protein detection technologies such as protein pens, which provide rapid, sensitive, and objective confirmation that medical devices surfaces are free from residual proteins. By integrating these tests into routine reprocessing workflows, hospitals can strengthen compliance, enhance patient safety, and improve overall cleaning validation outcomes.
Why is protein detection important?
While ATP tests only detect living cells, protein tests identify organic residues from living and dead cells. Protein detection gives a complete picture of cleanliness before sterilization, ensuring that what appears clean is actually clean.
