ICT Blog

Kelly M. Pyrek has served as editor in chief of Infection Control Today magazine for the past seven years, and manages a number of ICT-affiliated print and online offerings, including the Infection Control Education Institute, the ICT Conference on Professional Development, the ICT Series of Webinars, and GermStop. Recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists as an award-winning practitioner, she has served as an editorial manager, editor, and writer for newspapers, magazines, wire services, and public information bureaus for 25 years. She is a graduate of the Universityof Southern California.

SHEA Survey: Field Needs Increased Research

June 21, 2010 Comments

Posted in Blog

The July issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology (Vol. 31, No. 7) features an article that no infection preventionist should miss: “Charting the Course for the Future of Science in Healthcare Epidemiology: Results of a Survey of the Membership of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America.”

The piece is a report from the Research Committee of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) on the results of a survey of SHEA members which queried them about their perceptions of gaps in the healthcare epidemiology knowledge base and members’ priorities for SHEA research goals. The survey also assessed whether members would be willing to participate in consortia to address identified gaps in knowledge, and evaluated the need for training for the next generation of investigators in the field of healthcare epidemiology. The survey return rate was 46 percent, with 593 out of 1,289 members responding.

Respondents identified the following issues as critical:

-- Setting the scientific agenda for healthcare epidemiology

-- Developing collaborative infrastructure to conduct research

-- Developing funding mechanisms for research.

Respondents ranked multidrug-resistant gram-negative organisms, antimicrobial stewardship, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, adherence to effective hand hygiene guidelines, and Clostridium difficile infections as the most important scientific issues facing the field. Respondents ranked inadequate project funding, lack of protected time for research, and inability to obtain a grant, contract, and/or outside funding as the most significant barriers to conducting research.

According to the ICHE article, more than 92 respondents support creating a SHEA research consortium; more than 40 percent would participate even if no additional funding were available; nearly 90 percent identified developing research training as a key function for SHEA.

Reference: Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2010; 31(7):669-675