1. Researchers from Detroit Medical Center found patients who develop Clostridium difficile infections are twice as likely to be readmitted to the hospital as patients who don’t have C. diff.
2. Interviews with healthcare providers in a Canadian hospital revealed that nurses and other healthcare workers rarely report safety problems after they’ve been identified and fixed.
3. In one study, surgical site infection incidence varied considerably among amputation, breast, colon, hernia and bile duct-liver-pancreas procedures.
4. University of Minnesota researchers discovered fecal transplants are more successful for treating C. diff infections than researchers previously thought.
5. Researchers from Loyola University Chicago debunked the common myth that urine is sterile after finding bacteria in the bladder of healthy women.
6. Surveys with chronically ill patients found the public awareness of comparative physician and hospital performance reports has increased, but the growth has been slower than expected.
7. Researchers from the University of Nottingham in the U.K. translated one of the first medical textbooks to find a mixture of onion, garlic, wine and cow bile could kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
8. Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City identified a link between a protein associated with neurological diseases and the human body’s antiviral response.
9. The Applied Biotechnology Institute developed an innovative new method of producing oral hepatitis B vaccines using modified corn starch, according to a recent study.
10. Researchers found ultraviolet light disinfection can be used on personal protective equipment, while the healthcare worker is still wearing it, to reduce the risk of possible contamination while taking off the PPE.
11. A study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia discovered HIV-positive kidney transplant parents experience superior outcomes when compared to kidney transplant patients with hepatitis C or both viruses.
12. A case study from the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center’s Special Clinical Studies Unit highlighted the challenges and surprises encountered in preparing and caring for patients with confirmed or suspected Ebola virus.
13. Scientists from UC San Francisco identified a link between enterovirus D68 and acute flaccid myelitis that may explain the mysterious paralysis outbreak experienced by children across the country.
14. Nurse-physician collaboration was associated with decreased rates of healthcare-associated infections in critical care in one study.
15. A study led by Kristen Wendorf, MD, a physician at King County’s public health department in Seattle, found the current reprocessing guidelines for endoscopes may not be sufficient for adequately sterilizing the devices.
16. Common antibiotics were revealed to be just as effective as the more expensive alternatives in treating pneumonia in hospitalized patients by researchers from the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands.
17. Research from the Emory School of Medicine and Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta indicated that, when used in low doses, the anti-cancer drug imatinib may help immune cells fight bacterial infections.
