EpiPlot, a web application for epidemiological surveillance
Stopping nosocomial pathogens: a patient tracking solution
Hospital-acquired infections pose a significant challenge for healthcare facilities due to their high financial, resource, and time costs. Identifying and isolating the bacterial strains responsible for outbreaks or potential outbreaks is crucial. While Next Generation Sequencing, particularly Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), has provided a reliable and precise method for identifying clones and assessing relatedness among isolates, it's equally important to investigate possible epidemiological links between patients. This helps confirm cross-contamination events and halt the spread of bacteria by isolating affected patients.
We have developed an innovative web application using R Shiny, specifically designed for infection control personnel. This tool enables quick and effortless creation of visual plots, aiding in decision-making processes and understanding the transmission dynamics of hospital-acquired pathogens. The application features a patient tracking plot, akin to a Gantt chart, which simplifies the visualization of patient movements within the hospital. Additionally, it generates a network plot illustrating the duration two patients spent together, thereby highlighting potential cross-contamination. When integrated with WGS data, patients are categorized and clustered based on the specific clone they harbor, and positive samples are displayed, facilitating a more precise analysis.
For further details, please visit the GitHub page.
