We can now do genomics on every environmental and patient isolate withing the hospital and can track each patient in the hospital to determine if they have the same or different infection. This allows us to know if the NICU needs to be shut down when more than 2 infections are detected, or if 2 patients with what appears to be a similar infection, can be safely treated in the same isolation room.”

Applied prospectively, Molecular Epidemiology assists the infection control practitioners with genomic-defined groups, along with the integrated clinical data platform. This helps infection control professionals detect transmissions sooner than by conventional means which may lead to potential patient safety gains and cost savings.”  

In the past, we've had ongoing epidemics and hospitals that weren't detected for weeks or months after they occurred, putting a lot more patients at risk. I think we can now intercept that chain much earlier on. I see this becoming just a routine within the next three to five years in most of our hospitals, using these sequencing techniques to understand not only transmission of bugs, but to also even predict resistance.”

Routine use of Molecular Epidemiology has identified clusters that are not likely detectable by routine infection control surveillance in use today”