HAIs to be tackled in new £4.2m project

Led by researchers from Imperial College London, it will look at healthcare-associated infections from a wide range of angles, from exploring the molecular make-up of bacteria to addressing how best to bring about changes in practice across healthcare.

The new consortium consists of Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Health Protection Agency (HPA). One of its key aims is to ensure that benefits from the research reach patients as quickly and effectively as possible.

At the laboratory level, the researchers aim to use state-of-the-art molecular tools to answer some of the most pressing questions about healthcare associated infection. For example, if a particularly virulent strain of an infection such as MRSA emerges, researchers will set to work to explore how this differs in its genetic and protein makeup from other strains. They then aim to develop a test that hospitals can use to detect the strain so they can prevent it infecting their patients.

They will also look at issues such as how easily the bacteria can be transmitted, by tagging individual bugs with bioluminescence to see how they cross between hospital equipment such as latex gloves and identify the best strategies for preventing such spread.

Another strand of the project will involve healthcare management experts from Imperial College's Tanaka Business School to explore how to change the behaviour of individuals and whole organisations in the NHS, so that new innovations are adopted rapidly and best practice is embedded and sustained.

Researchers will also be exploring the most effective messages to encourage everyone, from senior consultants to cleaning staff, to prevent infection, improve antibiotic practice and take the relevant steps to keep infection under control. Another part of the project will investigate how to better educate pharmacists about countering resistance to antibiotics.

“It's vital that we carry out basic science to gain a better understanding of existing infections and newly emerging strains, and that we identify the very best ways to fight them,” said project co-leader Dr Alison Holmes, director of infection control and prevention at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a researcher in the Division of Investigative Science at Imperial College London. “However, it's only through figuring out how to make people change their habits and practices across our hospitals and the wider healthcare community that we can improve the picture across the UK.”

Spread over five years, the £4.2m funding will enable Imperial College to create nine new PhD fellows specialising in a range of fields addressing infection prevention, including organisational development and behaviour; epidemiology, surveillance and modelling; and bacterial genetics, molecular typing and pathogenesis.

The new award is made jointly by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust.

This is the first round of funding awarded under a UK Clinical Research Collaboration joint initiative. The initiative was set up to bring together new multi-disciplinary research groups focused on high quality collaborative research addressing national priorities in the field of microbiology and infection.