Author Interviews, Infections / 14.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan S. Huang, MD Professor, Infectious Disease School of Medicine Medical Director, Epidemiology and Infection Prevention UCI MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:  The SHIELD Orange County Project is a CDC-initiated public health collaborative among nursing homes, long-term acute care (LTAC) facilities, and hospitals in the 6th largest U.S. County (Orange County, California). The 38 facilities (18 nursing homes, 3 LTACs, 17 hospitals) received targeted invitations based upon their high degree of shared patients with one another. The goal of the collaborative is to reduce multi-drug resistant organisms throughout the county using a decolonization strategy. As part of the baseline assessment, we swabbed 50 adult patients in each facility to assess the frequency that patients had multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO) on their body. Nursing home and LTAC patients were sampled from the entire population while hospital sampling involved only adults in contact precautions. We found that an alarmingly high percent of patients had an MDRO, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producers (ESBLs), and carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE).
  • For nursing homes, 64% of residents have an antibiotic resistant bacteria on their body. Almost all of these are not known to the nursing home.
  • For LTACs, 80% of patients have an antibiotic resistant bacteria on their body. 7 in 10 patients have an MDRO that is not known to the LTAC.
  • For hospitalized patients on contact precautions, 64% have an antibiotic-resistant bacteria on their body. One third have an antibiotic-resistant bacteria that is not known to the hospital.
  • Having one MDRO is highly associated with having another one/
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Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Infections, Merck, Stem Cells, Transplantation / 12.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jonathan Schelfhout, PhD Director, Outcomes Research Merck & Co. Inc. North Wales, PA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The cost of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has received increased attention after it was identified as a top 10 contributor to increasing healthcare costs in an AHRQ 2016 report. Many recent studies have explored the cost of HSCT but additional research is needed on the costly complications that can follow the transplant procedure. This research is particularly relevant for inpatient decision makers, as most transplant centers receive one bundled payment for the transplant and the treatment of any complications over the first 100 days. (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, CDC, Dental Research, Infections / 09.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Stacy Holzbauer, DVM, MPH, DACVPM CDC Career Epidemiology Field Officer (CEFO) Commander, USPHS Minnesota Department of Health St. Paul, MN MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
  • Antibiotics are not harmless drugs—Clostridium difficile infection, which can sometimes cause a deadly diarrhea, is a complication of antibiotic use and can occur after even one dose of an antibiotic.
  • The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is part of the larger Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Emerging Infections Program (EIP). The healthcare-associated infection component of CDC’s EIP engages a network of state health departments and their academic medical center partners to help answer critical questions about emerging HAI threats including Clostridium difficile also known as “C. diff.”
  • In Minnesota, the majority of C. diff infections occur outside the hospital and are driven by antibiotic use in community or outpatient settings. In addition to routine surveillance data, we interview patients with C. diff who were not hospitalized prior to their infection to identify potential risks for developing C. diff infection, including identifying antibiotics received outside of routine healthcare settings.
  • Dentists prescribe approximately 10% of the antibiotics in outpatient settings, which was over 24 million prescriptions in 2013. When asked about their prescribing practices in a 2015 survey with the Minnesota Dental Association, 36% of dentists surveyed prescribed antibiotics for dental conditions that are generally not recommended to receive antibiotics according to American Dental Association (ADA) guidelines.
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Author Interviews, HIV, Infections / 06.10.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Paul M. Salcuni, MPH Department of Health and Mental Hygiene New York City MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: NYC Health Department is committed to ensuring equitable access to HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for all New Yorkers who are HIV-negative and may be exposed to HIV. We examined trends in PrEP prescribing by 602 ambulatory care practices in New York City from 2014 to 2016, as well as associated patient and practice factors, to inform our comprehensive scale-up efforts. For every 100,000 medical visits in the first three months of 2014, roughly 39 involved a patient being prescribed PrEP. In the second quarter of 2016, 419 of every 100,000 medical visits at those same practices involved a PrEP prescription. Despite this nine-fold increase overall, some groups of patients among these practices were less likely to be prescribed PrEP. Those groups include men of color, women, and people getting health care at smaller private practices or practices outside of the city center. (more…)