The Kilmer Conference is a memorial conference to celebrate the contributions of Fred Kilmer – a pioneer in infection prevention. Fred was a pivotal leader in the pharmaceutical industry and director of Johnson & Johnson’s scientific laboratory from 1889-1934.
Johnson & Johnson has hosted a total of ten Kilmer Conferences between 1976-2019 for invited professionals in microbiological quality, assurance of sterility and infection control from industry, academia, regulatory authorities and healthcare delivery organizations. Previous conferences focused on advancements in terminal sterilization and aseptic processing, new validation methods, new technologies, and world health issues. In 2019, the Kilmer Conference celebrated its 10th event in Dublin, Ireland.
Although product needs may evolve in the future, the assurance of sterility will continue to be the foundation for infection prevention in the healthcare and consumer environments. The faster pace of product innovation and development means that methods for assuring microbiological quality must evolve quickly using new ways of working that incorporate greater agility. The Sterility Assurance Community has used the forum of the Kilmer Conference to communicate innovations across medical devices / pharmaceuticals and between industry, academia, healthcare professionals and regulatory agencies. Concepts and technical research first presented at previous Kilmer Conferences has helped shape the standards for assurance of sterility, and previous conference content is referenced in the standards used today. To ensure the continued availability of this body of information, Johnson & Johnson provides the Kilmer Conference proceedings in digital formats.
The Kilmer Conference is a great venue for exchanging ideas with the brightest minds in sterility assurance and building a network to share best practices. In the last few years, the conference started a conversation Connecting the Dots for Sterility Assurance from end-to-end in the product lifecycle and continued with the theme, Collaborate to Innovate. In years to come, the Kilmer Conference will continue the tradition of shaping this technical field and share our community learning.
