Rush University Prevention Epicenter

Key points

  • First funded in 2006.
  • Works to prevent the spread of antimicrobial-resistant organisms across different types of healthcare facilities.

Overview

Rush University's Chicago Prevention and Intervention Epicenter III (CPIE-III) has projects designed to protect people from catching hard-to-treat germs in all types of healthcare facilities.

The Epicenter's research includes an ambitious portfolio of projects in hospitals, long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) and skilled nursing facilities. CPIE-III makes epidemiologic and basic science discoveries and technological innovations translatable into strategies to prevent the spread of antimicrobial-resistant (AR) organisms, both within facilities and regionally across interconnected facilities. Multiple interventions are applied across different types of healthcare facilities to control widespread AR germs and mitigate emerging novel AR germs.

Core research study areas

The Epicenter evaluates four areas:

  1. How a patient's own microbes (microscopic organisms, or tiny living things, such as bacteria, viruses and fungi) can protect them or make them vulnerable.
  2. How germs spread between people using advanced genetic analyses.
  3. Data exchange among facilities.
  4. Measures of antibiotic use across facilities.

Research study areas include:

  • Predictive modeling to identify patients at high risk for multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) to inform Illinois' Extensively Drug-Resistant Organism (XDRO) registry.
  • Regional active MDRO surveillance with genomic (the study of genes) analysis.
  • Geospatial, ecologic and clinical risk factors for community-associated extended spectrum beta-lactamase producers (antibiotic-resistant enzymes).
  • Genomic epidemiology of MDRO transmission in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) applying innovative research methodology to evaluate MDRO transmission.
  • Adverse health outcomes associated with microbiota (microorganism) disruption.
  • Generate and export reports on antimicrobial use metrics from a national common data model.

Multicenter collaborative research projects

  • Dynamics of the microbiota (microorganisms) and resistome (the collection of genes that contribute to antibiotic resistance) in ICU patients.
  • Chlorhexidine (a substance that stops or slows the growth of germs) effectiveness assessment in non-ICU hematology-oncology/bone marrow transplantation units (CLEAN-HEME).

Principal investigators

Mary Hayden, MD and William Trick, MD

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Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)