Author: Kelly Cawcutt

The Future of ID Training – UNMC ID Participate in Development of IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Curriculum

Content written by Drs. Van Schooneveld and Stohs. Antimicrobial stewardship programs improve patient outcomes, efficiency of care, and are a key tool in combating antimicrobial resistance. The field of antimicrobial stewardship is rapidly expanding and while ID fellows have the foundation for leading antimicrobial stewardship efforts, leading such programs require unique skills and knowledge. To […]

May 18, 2021

VAE – A Perpetual Prevention Problem

Ventilator-Associated Events (VAEs) were adopted by the National Health Safety Network (NHSN) in 2013, and have subsequently been associated with worse patient outcomes. However, the shift to VAE has left controversy as to both its value, and how best to prevent it. Recently, Zhu et al published a large study focused on risk factors and […]

May 11, 2021

UVGI N95 Decontamination – a Method to Extend the Supply of N95 Respirators in Time of Emergency

Outbreaks due to respiratory viruses pose a unique threat to health care as they require often significant amounts of personal protective equipment. Based upon previous modeling of severe influenza pandemics, the need for N95 filtering face piece respirators (FFRs) would range between 1.7 and 7.3 billion FFR’s, however there were only an estimated 60 million […]

May 4, 2021

COVID Vaccine Trial – Update & Future Adolescent Opportunities

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine are participating in an international clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults.  Novavax vaccine is a protein-based vaccine from the coronavirus spike protein and is adjuvanted with saponin-based Matrix-M™ to enhance the immune response and stimulate high levels of neutralizing antibodies. It […]

Apr 28, 2021

New Faculty Spotlight – Dr. Daniel Brailita

Background: I was born in Bucharest, Romania and completed Medical School there. I trained in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases in Texas, finishing as chief resident at Texas Tech and chief fellow at UT Southwestern in Dallas. I moved to Nebraska in 2007 where I helped building the first ID practice encompassing Central Nebraska and […]

Apr 15, 2021

UNMC ID at SHEA 2021 – Where to Find Us!

The SHEA 2021 Spring conference is here and this is your guide on where to find our UNMC ID team presenting throughout the conference, starting with pre-conference workshops. And yes, there is still time to sign up and attend! Lectures/Workshops Pre-Conference Workshop: Sharing Our Science: Using Modern Means to Get Your Message Out There; Using […]

Apr 8, 2021

Why I Love ID – Dr. Richard Hankins

It has been a hot minute since we had a chance to share the perspective of our faculty on why they love ID. Dr. Hankins was able to share as a fellow, but now shares his updated reasons from the perspective of a junior faculty member. “When thinking of why I love infectious diseases, I […]

Apr 1, 2021

Changing the Culture of Culturing

Originally written by Dr. Cawcutt and posted on IDSA Journal Club Despite a recommendation from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) to procure blood cultures within the first hour after sepsis recognition, implementation of this practice been suboptimal. This prompted the implementation of routine blood culture obtainment in non-elective intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, whether infection […]

Mar 25, 2021

UNMC ID at #CROI 2021

Conferences may continue to look different due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but our ID faculty remain dedicated as ever to continuing to contribute to scientific knowledge and advancement of patient care. The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was held this year from March 6-10, and UNMC had several presentations. See below for the […]

Mar 13, 2021

Clinical Consequences of Contaminated Blood Cultures in Adult Hospitalized Patients at an Institution Utilizing a Rapid Blood-Culture Identification System

Blood culture contamination results in prolonged hospital length of stay, inappropriate use of antibiotics, and increased cost as well as the associated adverse events such as falls, drug errors, and healthcare associated infections (adverse events that may occur during more prolonged hospital stay) and emergence of antibiotic resistance, C. difficile infection, and antibiotic side effects […]

Jan 27, 2021