Research & Collaborations

The Prevention Epicenter of Emory and Atlanta Consortium Hospitals, or PEACH, is a collaboration among the following institutions:

• Emory University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Georgia State University

Goal

The goal of PEACH is to develop innovative prevention approaches in healthcare epidemiology.  Our current projects focus on new strategies to better protect the health and safety of patients and healthcare providers during the delivery of care, especially from high risk and common bacteria and viruses.  

CDC Prevention Epicenters Program

PEACH is one of 11 Prevention Epicenters funded by the CDC, a unique research program in which CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) collaborates with academic investigators to conduct innovative infection control and prevention research.

To learn more about the Research Grant funding PEACH, read the article, "CDC awards Emory $2.2 million grant to prevent the spread of infectious diseases."

Emory University’s Serious Communicable Diseases Program has been awarded a competitive contract by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to assess the feasibility of elastomeric half-mask respirator (EHMR) use in health care. This project is funded in kind by the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL), the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). 

The goal of the project, as a whole, is to assess the feasibility of rapidly deploying and training health care workers on reusable EHMRs in case of a respiratory pathogen pandemic event. From this, Emory University and the other selected health care centers, Wayne State University and the University of Texas, Houston, will collaborate with NIOSH to develop a blueprint for health care systems across the country.

Dr. Colleen Kraft, MD, MSc, is the principal investigator on the contract.

To learn more, read the news release.

Emory's Serious Communicable Diseases Program and the Emory Vaccine Center teams have joined to study how the Ebola Virus changed over time Dr. Rafi Ahmed, director of the Emory Vaccine Center, and Dr. Aneesh Mehta, assistant director of transplant infectious diseases at Emory University Hospital have joined to conduct research and study how the Ebola Virus has changed over time. This study is conducted by collecting a patients' blood study to see over time which antibodies were produced to protect the patients; and how cells adapt to fight the infection. This research is funded by a grant by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

To learn more, read the following news release: Emory Works to Eradicate Ebola Epidemic

In 2015, Health and Human Services' Office of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established NETEC to improve special pathogen preparedness and response across health systems in the U.S. 

Emory University, the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Nebraska Medicine, and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue—three teaching hospitals that successfully treated patients with Ebola in 2014—were designated to lead NETEC. This consortium was charged with advancing special pathogens preparedness by supporting and coordinating with the 10 Regional Emerging Special Pathogen Treatment Centers (RESPTCs) throughout the country. In 2023, ASPR designated three additional sites as RESPTCs, bringing the total number to 13.

NETEC leverages the unique expertise, resources, and experience of the 13 RESPTCs to assess health care facility readiness, train providers, provide technical assistance, and build a rapid research infrastructure to combat emerging special pathogens in the United States. 

Dr. Aneesh Mehta, MD, is the principal investigator on the contract for Emory University.

Read the announcement regarding Emory's designation as one of three academic institutions tasked with coordinating NETEC's programming to support the training of health care providers and facilities on strategies to manage Ebola virus disease and other emerging infectious diseases.

Climate change is already exacerbating infectious disease impacts across the world. Moreover, the endemic areas of many tropical infectious diseases are expanding rapidly. Coupled with urbanization and globalization amplifying the spread of communicable diseases, the U.S. healthcare system will soon face new challenges.

Emory is uniquely positioned to address these challenges by blending the expertise of Emory’s Serious Communicable Diseases Program with climate and infectious disease researchers in the College’s Department of Environmental Sciences, Rollins School of Public Health and nursing educators from the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.

With this team focused on these challenges, Emory can offer a visionary research plan addressing environmental, public health, healthcare worker training, and safe patient care strategies. This award allows the team to foster an expanding, interdisciplinary research community on campus and develop a research plan ready for external funding through pilot projects and expert discussion.

Dr. Colleen Kraft, MD, MSc, is the principal investigator.

Co-Principal Investigators include Jessica Fairley, MD, MPH School of Public Health and Uriel Kitron, PhD, MPH Goodrich C. White Professor Department of Environmental Sciences, Emory College of Arts and Sciences.