Can portable genome sequencing provide a rapid, comprehensive, point-of-care diagnostic test for Far North Queensland hospitals and healthcare centres? (Old ID 26762)

Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre Limited
Role

Chief Investigator

Description

Respiratory disease, fevers, and sepsis are common in FNQ and treatment often requires admission to hospital. These infections have many different causes, and diagnosing them requires multiple tests that take weeks to perform. Consequently, patients are treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics before a pathogen is identified, leading to poorer outcomes for the patient and contributing to the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections. We will trial new genome sequencing technology as a point-of-care diagnostic test for fever, sepsis, and pneumonia at Cairns Hospital, and test the hypothesis that this approach will increase the proportion of infections that are diagnosed and reduce the time-to-diagnosis.

Date

17 Feb 2020 - 17 Feb 2022

Project Type

CONTRACT_RESEARCH

Keywords

Genomics;Healthcare;pathogens

Funding Body

Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre Limited

Amount

49987

Project Team

John Miles;Cadhla Firth;Damon Eisen;Emma McBryde;Matt Field