Chicago Prevention and Intervention Epicenter at Rush University Medical Center and Cook County Health and Hospitals System
First Funded: 2006
Overview: Researchers from the Cook County Health and Hospitals System (CCHHS) and Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) collaborate to form the Chicago Prevention and Intervention Epicenter (C-PIE). The Epicenter encompasses eight core hospitals and affiliated institutions belonging to two large hospital networks in metropolitan Chicago under CCHHS and RUMC. The C-PIE team includes researchers who have expertise in microbiology, clinical infectious diseases, diagnostic testing, epidemiology, antimicrobial stewardship, public health informatics, clinical informatics, and study design. Researchers partner closely with external collaborators such as state and local health departments, professional societies (e.g., Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC), and investigators with complementary expertise in human microbiome analysis, prokaryotic genomics, and mathematical modeling. For the past five years, C-PIE has worked to define the epidemiology of some of the most serious antibiotic resistance threats, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Future research will leverage molecular diagnostic techniques such as bacterial whole genome sequencing and microbiome analysis informatics, genomics and, mathematical modeling to fill gaps in knowledge to reduce healthcare-associated infections and lessen the risk of spread of antimicrobial-resistant germs.
Research Study Areas:
- Assessing how infectious disease specialists and primary care physicians manage antibiotic stewardship
- Investigating and improving basic infection control interventions including chlorhexidine bathing
- Monitoring the regional transmission of CRE using whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis
- Using bacterial whole genome sequence analysis to understand the contributions of intra- and inter-facility transmission of CRE to regional spread
- Building a the web-based multidrug-resistant organism registry as an informatics tool to monitor state-wide CRE trends and to improve healthcare facility-level and regional awareness of CRE carriage and spread
- Understanding the relationship between the gastrointestinal microbiome and risk of multi drug-resistant organism transmission and infection
Principal Investigator: Mary K. Hayden, MD and William E. Trick, MD
- Page last reviewed: October 5, 2015
- Page last updated: June 24, 2016
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