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Investigating Trends in Antimicrobial Resistance Among the Key Bacterial Pathogens Causing Infections in Intensive Care Units Across Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Cites During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic
Safe People
Organisation name
Imperial College London
Organisation sector
Academic Institute
Applicant name(s)
Jonah Andrew Corcoran Rodgus
Funders/ Sponsors
Frances Davies
DEA accredited researcher?
Unknown
Sub-licence arrangements (if any)?
No
Safe Projects
Project ID
NIBDAPC_2024_0039
Lay summary
Antimicrobials kill or prevent the growth of bacteria. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) data show how well different antimicrobials work against different bacteria, helping doctors choose the right treatment. AST data are crucial in both clinical and research settings, and they can be used to help predict genomic (genetic) causes of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The main aim of this project is to investigate how the AST data has changed between 2020-2023, in which parts of the hospitals these changes are seen, and whether it links in with resistance genes identified in genomic data from specific bacteria, e.g., Klebsiella pneumoniae. For isolates which show the highest levels of antimicrobial resistance, we will look to see what risk factors there are that may have led to this, such as recent use of antibiotics, or particular health conditions.
Public benefit statement
Infections are becoming more resistant to the antimicrobials available, and there is an increasing reliance on reserve antimicrobials. In the most resistant cases, patients are dying from infections for which no antimicrobials can be found that work. This has been classified as a public emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and a key priority by NHS England. The data analysed in this project will help to identify which patient groups are getting the more antimicrobial resistant (AMR) disease, and help to link it to the bacterial genomic (genetic) causes of that antimicrobial resistance that have already been identified. This will allow clinicians to prioritise the reserve antibiotics for those patients that really need them, and to ensure antibiotic supplies are available where they are needed. This will directly benefit the care of patients attending Imperial College Healthcare NHS trust, as the results will be fed back to local clinicians (particularly specialists in treating infections) to help inform the best local antimicrobial policies to treat patients, and to help their access to the antimicrobials they need to treat more resistant infections. More broadly, the public will benefit as outcomes from this project will help to inform public health strategies to treat and prevent antimicrobial resistance.
Request category type
Public Health Research
Other approval committees
Project start date
19/02/2025
Latest approval date
16/12/2024
Safe Data
Dataset(s) name
ICHT iCARE Data Model
Data sensitivity level
De-Personalised
Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
Not applicable
National data opt-out applied?
Not applicable
Request frequency
One-off
Release/Access date
19/02/2025
Safe Setting
Access type
TRE