University of Pennsylvania Prevention Epicenter

Overview

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Adult and Pediatric Prevention Epicenter Network (i.e., the Penn-CHOP Epicenter) studies seek to build on the considerable track record of the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) by further elucidating the epidemiology and impact of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial resistance (AR), as well as identifying and testing novel strategies to address these critical problems.

The Penn-CHOP Epicenter provides a rich scientific environment where investigators with complementary areas of expertise collaborate to address the most urgent issues in HAI and AR. These investigators bring expertise in diverse fields including infectious diseases, internal medicine, geriatrics, critical care, pulmonary medicine, emergency medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, health economics, implementation science, sociology and microbiology. Epicenter studies focus on acute, post-acute and outpatient care settings and include adult and pediatric populations.

The Penn-CHOP Epicenter represents a broad collaboration across multiple clinical and research institutions in southeastern Pennsylvania. These include the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics; the Antimicrobial Resistance, Healthcare Epidemiology and Antimicrobial Stewardship Research Collaborative; the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics; the Institute on Aging; the Center for Public Health Initiatives; the PennCHOP Microbiome Program; the CHOP Research Institute; and the CHOP Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness.

The Penn-CHOP Epicenter has collaborated extensively with other CDC Epicenter sites, healthcare networks, public health agencies and regional partners to answer critical scientific questions. Concerted efforts are required to define the epidemiology and impact of emerging HAI and AR issues, as well as identify and test novel strategies to address these problems. The considerable research support and infrastructure provided by the CDC's Prevention Epicenters Program has facilitated significant scientific achievements, demonstrated in part by 71 peer-reviewed publications and 110 scientific abstracts from the Penn-CHOP Epicenter group since its inception in 2011.

Core research study areas

• Screening and Targeted Prophylaxis for Clostridioides difficile Infection (CDI) among Immunocompromised Hosts (SToP-CDI). (Judith Anesi, MD, MSCE and Matthew Ziegler, MD, MSCE)
• Non-residential Exposures to Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (NEXUS). (Matthew Ziegler, MD, MSCE)
• Reducing Antimicrobial Prescribing in Dialysis (RAPID). (Lauren Dutcher, MD, MSCE)
• Microbiome Sampling in Pediatric Post-Acute Care to Understand Multidrug-resistant Organism Risk, Antibiotic Effect, and Ventilator-associated Infection (MS PAC-MAN). (Katie Chiotos, MD, MSCE and Brendan Kelly, MD)
• Natural Language Processing for Antibiotic Prescribing in Sinusitis (NAPS). (Keith Hamilton, MD and Lauren Dutcher, MD, MSCE)
• Antibiotic Stewardship for Ambulatory Surgery Prophylaxis (ASSURE). (Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD, MSCE and Keith Hamilton, MD)

Multicenter collaborative research projects

• Communication and Coaching to Increase Steward Influence (CACTIS). (Julie Szymczak, PhD)
• Reducing Vancomycin Administration in Pediatric Sepsis (REVAMP-Sepsis). (Katie Chiotos, MD, MSCE)
• Fecal Microbiota Transplantation to Address Colonization and Environmental Contamination with Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (FACE-MDRO). (Brendan Kelly, MD)

Principal investigators

Ebbing Lautenbach, MD, MPH, MS and Jeffrey Gerber, MD, PhD, MSCE