2026 ISSA Healthcare Surfaces Forum
Innovation and Solutions Meet Healthcare Surfaces
Surface intelligence for better decision-making in product development and selection
Wednesday 7 October (Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre)
Healthcare Surfaces Forum
Healthcare surfaces play a critical role in patient safety, infection prevention and the overall quality of healthcare environments. Yet responsibility for surface safety is often spread across multiple disciplines that rarely have the opportunity to come together.
The Healthcare Surfaces Forum, hosted by ISSA Healthcare, a division of ISSA, the Association for Cleaning and Facility Solutions has been designed to change that.
This highly interactive Forum brings together healthcare leaders, environmental services professionals, clinicians, researchers, facility managers, manufacturers and industry experts to explore how evidence-based environmental hygiene, surface selection, cleaning practices and emerging innovation can better support safer healthcare environments.
Through expert presentations and facilitated discussion, delegates will examine current challenges, identify opportunities for greater collaboration and explore practical ways to translate evidence into everyday practice.
Who should attend:
- Building Service Contractors
- Environmental Services (EVS) professionals
- Healthcare executives and facility managers
- Infection prevention and clinical leaders
- Manufacturers and suppliers
- Researchers, scientists and educators
Held on Wednesday 7th October 2026, the day before the ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo – Thursday 8- Friday 9 October (MCEC), the Forum provides the ideal opportunity to engage with healthcare thought leaders before continuing the conversation across two days of Australasia’s leading cleaning and facility solutions event.
To attend, register for the ISSA Cleaning & Hygiene Expo and select the Healthcare Surfaces Forum as part of your registration.
Why Attend?
Speakers
Carrie Spinks
Infection Prevention and Control Consultant, Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control Ltd
Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner
Associate Professor Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, Senior Director, ISSA and the Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC), a division of ISSA
Linda Lybert
Linda Lybert, Executive Director Healthcare Surfaces Institute a Division Of ISSA and ISSA Healthcare Lead
Liz Orr
Liz Orr, Manager Infection Prevention and Surveillance Service (IPSS), Royal Melbourne Hospital
10:00am — Welcome & Introduction
10:15 – 10:45am — Speaker Session
Where Evidence Meets Reality
Speaker: Liz Orr, Manager Infection Prevention and Surveillance Service (IPSS), Royal Melbourne Hospital
Summary: Cleaning is a critical component of infection prevention, but delivering effective environmental hygiene in healthcare settings is rarely straightforward. Healthcare organisations must navigate complex environments, competing priorities, differing requirements and expectations, evolving guidance, and increasing pressure to demonstrate that cleaning practices are achieving the intended outcomes.
Drawing on her experience in infection prevention within a major healthcare setting, Liz Orr will explore the realities of translating cleaning requirements into consistent practice and examine what current evidence is telling us about environmental cleaning, contamination and infection risk.
The session will consider how evidence is shaping our understanding of effective healthcare cleaning, where implementation can become difficult, and why translating research, standards and guidance into everyday practice remains one of the most important challenges for healthcare environmental hygiene.
10:45 – 11:30am — Panel Discussion
From Evidence to Action: What Does Better Healthcare Cleaning Require?
Panellists:
- Liezl Foxcroft, CEO at Master Cleaners Training Institute & General Manager for CrestClean Commercial Cleaning
- Carrie Spinks, Infection Prevention and Control Consultant at Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control Ltd
- Linda Lybert, Executive Director at Healthcare Surfaces Institute a Division Of ISSA and ISSA Healthcare Lead
Summary: Research continues to demonstrate the important role environmental hygiene plays in infection prevention and patient safety. But achieving better outcomes requires more than knowing what works. It requires the right workforce capability, effective collaboration between infection prevention and environmental services, strong leadership, appropriate resourcing, meaningful measurement and systems that enable evidence-based practice to be applied consistently.
Bringing together perspectives from infection prevention, workforce development and healthcare environmental hygiene, this panel will explore what it takes to translate research into everyday practice. Panellists will examine where gaps remain, what may be preventing change, and how healthcare organisations and industry can work together to strengthen environmental hygiene outcomes.
The discussion will also identify priority issues to carry forward into the collaborative discussions and task-force development taking place throughout the Healthcare Surfaces Forum.
11:30am – 12:00pm — Speaker Session
From Evidence to Implementation: Applying the EPIS Framework to Healthcare Cleaning
Summary: How do healthcare organisations move from knowing what should change to implementing improvements that can be measured and sustained?
Dr Gavin Macgregor-Skinner will explore the application of the EPIS framework — Exploration, Preparation, Implementation and Sustainment — through a practical healthcare case study focused initially on one high-touch surface: bed rails.
The session will examine how risk zones, ATP testing, cleaning processes and practical job aids were used to better align cleaning with infection prevention priorities and measure outcomes before and after cleaning.
Rather than treating improvement as a one-off intervention, Gavin will demonstrate how EPIS can provide a structured framework for translating evidence into practice, evaluating what works and supporting improvements that can be sustained over time.
12:00 – 12:45pm — Lunch
12:45 – 1:00pm — Sponsor Presentation
1:00 – 2:15pm — Breakout Session
2:15 – 2:45pm — Afternoon Tea
2:45 – 4:00pm — Breakout Session
Hotel Accommodation
Novotel Melbourne South Wharf
Located at 7 Convention Centre Pl, South Wharf VIC 3006, Australia.
Novotel Melbourne South Wharf offers 10% discount off the best available rate. Use the promo code VENUENMSW when making a reservation.
Crowne Plaza Melbourne
Located at 1-5 Spencer St, Docklands VIC 3008, Australia.
Crowne Plaza Melbourne offers 12% off their best available online rates. Book via the dedicated link below to secure your discounted rate. Subject to availability for stays around 8-9 October 2026.
Brady Apartment Flinders
Located at 550 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia.
Brady Apartment Flinders offers 10% discount off the best available rate. Enter promo code ISSAEXPOMEL at checkout. Available for stays from 5-9 October 2026.
Contact us at [email protected]
Partner with the Healthcare Surfaces Forum
More than visibility, sponsorship is your gateway to cross-disciplinary collaboration and direct access to key decision makers. Contact Alicia Morgan at [email protected] to get started.
ISSA Healthcare Surfaces Forum Partner
