Our mission is to advance the science of antibiotic stewardship and healthcare infection prevention through multidisciplinary research, training programs, and collaboration both within and outside of academia.
What are HAIs and AS?
Modern healthcare employs many types of procedures and relies on invasive devices to treat patients and to help them recover. Some patients can develop infections related to healthcare delivery, which are referred to as healthcare-associated infections or HAIs. HAIs not only include central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia, but also a wide spectrum of infections from diarrhea to sepsis.
Antibiotic stewardship or AS is the discipline of activity to ensure the right antibiotics are being used for the right indication, at the right dose and right amount of time. Healthcare epidemiology science is used to study both HAIs and AS in efforts to identify the most efficient ways to eliminate HAIs and maximize best AS practices.
HAI/AS Work at Emory
Emory University faculty are involved in a broad range of Quality Improvement initiatives and research projects with direct translation pathways to larger pragmatic trials that can influence or change standard practices and fill gaps in current infection prevention guidance.
Training
Learn about the HAI/AS Clinical Tract of the Emory Infectious Disease Training Program
Research
HAI/AS CDC Epicenter
Prevention Epicenter of Emory and Collaborating Healthcare Facilities (PEACH)
a 5-year CDC-funded program that leverages national experts across diverse scientific disciplines at Emory University and other partnering institutions
Microbiologic support for research
providing investigators access to isolates through prospective biobanking of clinical samples and perform customized testing of clinical isolates, environmental samples, and microbiome samples
Improving processes of care
addressing the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of healthcare through human factors-based research, training, evaluation, and design.
Collaborations:
a community of public health practitioners
Faculty have the capacity to engage in research activities at Emory Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in metropolitan Atlanta, GA (pop. 5 million). Further, we have established research ties to a multi-state network of nursing homes and long-standing research collaborations with the Georgia Emerging Infections Program and Georgia Department of Public Health.
Centers and Programs @ Emory
Emory’s strengths in infectious diseases, bioinformatics, and critical care, including the collaborating programs in the Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center, the Emory Vaccine Center’s Hope Clinic, the National Ebola Training and Education Center, and the Georgia Clinical & Translational Science Alliance further enhance our program and activities.