A new software program developed by Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers to fight hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) is catching on faster than the flu. Professor Yehuda Carmeli from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at TAU has developed a security system for preventing hospital epidemics. Integrating basic sanitary procedures, his system uses the tools of e-mail alerts and other online communication to alert hospital staff of potential threats.
Two years ago Carmeli’s team adopted this system in its own institutions, and the work paid off. “We stopped 45 percent of the primary hospital-borne organisms that attack patients from spreading,” says Carmeli. His most recent paper on the topic appeared in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy this year.
Top medical centers in America are now asking for his help. Carmeli was recently invited to top U.S. medical centers, including Cedars-SinaiHospital in Los Angeles, and to the medical schools at OhioStateUniversity and Philadelphia’s TempleUniversity, to demonstrate the new high-tech line of defense against infection.
