Development of a nosocomial outbreak investigation database

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Public Health
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Nosocomial outbreaks pose significant public health challenges.
• Effective epidemiological investigation is crucial for outbreak control.
• Existing methods for reviewing outbreak data can be fragmented and inefficient.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and pilot a web-based database for structured epidemiological investigation of nosocomial outbreaks.
• To create a case study format for guiding outbreak investigations.
• To enable novel review of outbreaks based on structured data fields.

Main Methods:

• Development of a pilot web-based database.
• Abstracting and structuring data from over 330 published outbreak reports.
• Utilizing a case study format for data presentation.
• Incorporating fields for key outbreak parameters (cases, attack rate, pathogens, etc.).

Main Results:

• Successfully created a structured, web-based database for nosocomial outbreak data.
• Identified challenges in abstracting existing literature, including missing information and method classification.
• Demonstrated the database's utility in analyzing outbreak impact using various data combinations.
• Received positive user feedback regarding the database's usefulness.

Conclusions:

• A web-based database is a desirable and feasible tool for epidemiological investigation of nosocomial outbreaks.
• Structured data abstracts enhance the review and analysis of outbreak investigations.
• Further development and expansion of the database are warranted.