The 26th WFHSS World Sterilization Congress was held from 3 to 6 December 2025 at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong. Under the theme “Bring the Sterilization Science to the Next Level,” the event brought together specialists, researchers, and managers in sterilization and medical device reprocessing from around the world.
I attended as a scientific poster presenter, President of JAM Sterilization Research Institute, and Iran’s representative in WFHSS. The poster, Smart Integration of IoT and AI in CSSD: A New Horizon for Efficiency and Safety in Sterilization, was prepared with Faezeh Abdi and presented in the congress scientific poster programme.
The study explored the smart integration of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence in a central sterile services department. In the simulated model, sterilizers, sealers, washers, and incubators were connected with electronic health records and surgical schedules to enable unified real-time process monitoring.
Artificial intelligence was used to detect temperature, pressure, and cycle anomalies, predict equipment failures, identify unusual repetition, correlate infection reports with sterilization records, and recommend maintenance and process adjustments.
The simulation indicated potential reductions of 15 to 20 percent in energy use, approximately 15 percent in water and packaging consumption, and 10 to 15 percent in staffing needs. It also reported an approximately 20 percent improvement in instrument turnaround and a 25 percent reduction in infection-related complications. These figures are simulation results and should not be interpreted as definitive outcomes from a clinical study.
System interoperability, data security and privacy, and workforce training were identified as key implementation challenges. The study concluded that purposeful use of IoT and AI could improve efficiency, reduce cost and energy consumption, strengthen infection control, and enhance process traceability and validation within an Industry 4.0 framework.
Participation in the Hong Kong congress created valuable opportunities for international exchange, for presenting the scientific work of Iran and JAM Sterilization Research Institute, and for strengthening professional connections within the global sterilization community.
