April 28, 2025- An infectious diseases detection platform developed by University of Pittsburgh scientists working with UPMC infection preventionists proved over a two-year trial that it stops outbreaks, saves lives and cuts costs. The Enhanced Detection System for Healthcare-Associated Transmission system uses genomic sequencing to analyze infectious disease samples from patients. If two or more patients have near-idenical strains of an infection, the platform flags the results for the infection prevention team to find the commonality and halt transmission.
The results are published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, making the case for adoption in hospitals nationwide and the development of a national early outbreak detection database.