IPC Partners

🦠 In this talk, Dr Jon Otter explores one of the most urgent challenges in infection prevention and antimicrobial resistance: the rise and spread of CPE across hospitals and community settings. Drawing on real-world outbreaks, global surveillance data, clinical impact, and economic analyses, this session explains: 🔍 What’s the Problem? - Why CPE is a major global AMR threat - Clinical outcomes, including mortality data and ICU risks - The mechanisms behind resistance and rapid spread - How environmental contamination, plasmid transmission, and antibiotic pressure fuel outbreaks 📉 How Bad Is It? - UK and global prevalence trends - Europe’s “north–south divide” in carbapenem resistance - Economic costs of CPE outbreaks, including bed closures, contact precautions, and prolonged stays - Community carriage data from multiple regions worldwide 🛑 How Do We Stop It? - Evidence‑based infection prevention strategies - Screening approaches and patient engagement - Environmental interventions (sinks, drains, duodenoscopes) - Antimicrobial stewardship successes - Emerging approaches to decolonisation, including FMT and CHG bathing 📘 About the Speaker Dr Jon Otter is Director of Infection Prevention & Control and Consultant Clinical Scientist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London.

Welcome to another session of the IPC Partners Journal Club! In this episode, we’re delighted to host Dr. Yaseen Muhammad, Director of Infection Prevention & Control at Bradford Teaching Hospitals (UK). Yaseen shares a powerful real‑world quality improvement project focused on achieving zero central line–associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in the ICU. This 43‑minute session explores: 🩺 The burden and impact of CLABSI in critical care 📉 How a multidisciplinary team brought rates down from 2/1,000 line days to zero 🧪 Bundle compliance, behaviour change, and the reality of sustaining improvements 🔬 Surveillance differences between the UK, Middle East, and US 👥 Why ownership and leadership are critical to prevention success 💡 Practical lessons from the front line—including what really made the difference 🏥 Can zero CLABSI truly be achieved and sustained in modern healthcare?

Welcome to this Insight webinar hosted by IPC Partners, the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS), and the Infection Prevention Society (IPS). In this session, Dr Jon Otter and Dr Phil Norville are joined by Dr Alex Sundermann, a leading researcher from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), to explore one of the most transformational developments in infection prevention and control (IPC): genomic surveillance. 🔬 What This Webinar Covers Dr. Sundermann has been at the forefront of bringing whole‑genome sequencing (WGS) into real‑world IPC practice. In this webinar, he shares: - How genomic surveillance has evolved in the last five years - The shift from reactive outbreak investigation to proactive, real‑time surveillance - Evidence from UPMC’s multi‑year sequencing programme, including o outbreaks missed by routine IPC methods, instances where genomics ruled out suspected outbreaks, major transmission routes identified (e.g., contaminated endoscopes, ventilator filters, contrast practices), and cost‑effectiveness findings, including ~$700k annual net savings - Practical steps for implementing genomic surveillance in your own organisation - Barriers to adoption, including bioinformatics expertise, funding, and the need for professional society guidance - Future directions for hospital and national‑level genomic networks 🧪 Why Genomic Surveillance Matters WGS is no longer a research luxury—costs have fallen dramatically, workflows are faster, and evidence shows it can: - Identify outbreaks earlier - Prevent unnecessary IPC responses - Provide clarity in complex epidemiology - Detect cross‑facility and community transmission - Support targeted IPC interventions that save lives and reduce cost 📝 Topics Discussed - Reactive vs proactive (surveillance) sequencing - Genomics for MRSA, VRE, Pseudomonas, C. difficile and more - Practical turnaround times and lab workflows - Integrating genomics into IPC teams - Ethical, legal and regulatory considerations - How to pitch genomic surveillance to leadership - Insights from global programmes (US, UK, Denmark, Australia) 📅 About the Insight Webinar Series The Insight series brings expert discussions on cutting-edge infection prevention topics. Sessions support CPD, encourage critical thinking, and build a global community of IPC professionals. 🔗 Here's the schedule: https://ipcpartners.org/learn-with-us/ If you found this session useful, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share with colleagues in infection prevention, microbiology, epidemiology, and healthcare leadership.