On 2014 Jul 30, David Keller commented:

Doctors should replace handshakes with fist bumps, sanitize stethoscopes and ditch white coats & neckties

The recommendation to substitute fist bumps for handshakes to decrease bacterial transmission makes sense. In addition to the much briefer contact time and much smaller area of skin contact during a fist bump, fist contact occurs only on the dry skin of the dorsal hand, not the moist and sweaty palms which support higher bacterial counts. The widespread neglect of hand-washing has been documented. Fist bumps reduce exposure to gram negative bacteria like salmonella (due to fecal contamination) and gram positive bacteria like Staph Aureus (due to nose-picking) on unwashed hands.

Substituting fist bumps for handshakes is excellent advice for clinicians, along with eliminating other sources of documented pathogen transmission: unsanitary stethoscopes (1) and rarely-laundered neckties (2) & white coats (3).

References

1: Longtin Y, Schneider A, Tschopp C, Renzi G, Gayet-Ageron A, Schrenzel J, Pittet D. Contamination of stethoscopes and physicians' hands after a physical examination. Mayo Clin Proc. 2014 Mar;89(3):291-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.11.016. PubMed PMID: 24582188.

2: Day M. Doctors are told to ditch "disease spreading" neckties. BMJ. 2006 Feb 25;332(7539):442. PubMed PMID: 16497745; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1382570.

3: Banu A, Anand M, Nagi N. White coats as a vehicle for bacterial dissemination. J Clin Diagn Res. 2012 Oct;6(8):1381-4. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2012/4286.2364. PubMed PMID: 23205352; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3471503.

On 2014 Jul 30, David Keller commented:

Doctors should replace handshakes with fist bumps, sanitize stethoscopes and ditch white coats & neckties

The recommendation to substitute fist bumps for handshakes to decrease bacterial transmission makes sense. In addition to the much briefer contact time and much smaller area of skin contact during a fist bump, fist contact occurs only on the dry skin of the dorsal hand, not the moist and sweaty palms which support higher bacterial counts. The widespread neglect of hand-washing has been documented. Fist bumps reduce exposure to gram negative bacteria like salmonella (due to fecal contamination) and gram positive bacteria like Staph Aureus (due to nose-picking) on unwashed hands.

Substituting fist bumps for handshakes is excellent advice for clinicians, along with eliminating other sources of documented pathogen transmission: unsanitary stethoscopes (1) and rarely-laundered neckties (2) & white coats (3).

References

1: Longtin Y, Schneider A, Tschopp C, Renzi G, Gayet-Ageron A, Schrenzel J, Pittet D. Contamination of stethoscopes and physicians' hands after a physical examination. Mayo Clin Proc. 2014 Mar;89(3):291-9. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2013.11.016. PubMed PMID: 24582188.

2: Day M. Doctors are told to ditch "disease spreading" neckties. BMJ. 2006 Feb 25;332(7539):442. PubMed PMID: 16497745; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1382570.

3: Banu A, Anand M, Nagi N. White coats as a vehicle for bacterial dissemination. J Clin Diagn Res. 2012 Oct;6(8):1381-4. doi: 10.7860/JCDR/2012/4286.2364. PubMed PMID: 23205352; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3471503.