On Wednesday, March 22nd 2017, the GSA held its biannual Supporter Meeting at the ISICEM congress in Brussels. Over 40 people from over 15 countries participated, learned about the progress of the World Sepsis Day Movement, the resolution on sepsis and what it means, the successes of the UK Sepsis Trust, and shared their experiences from World Sepsis Day last year.
You can download all presentations and the minutes here (Zip-Folder, 18 MB).
Are you interested in improving the quality of care in healthcare facilities? With almost 40% of healthcare facilities in low and middle income countries lacking a basic water service, and 20% without basic sanitation, this issue is among the most pressing facing health professionals.
As part of the Healthy Start Campaign, our friends from WaterAid invite you to join an expert panel of speakers operating at facility, policy implementation and research levels to find out what the challenges are in overcoming this crisis and how progress is being made.
This event will look at how improving quality of care for mothers and newborns can be enhanced through integrating water, sanitation and hygiene within healthcare facilities. Participants will discuss both the practical interventions and policy changes required to make progress happen and examine the wider implications including the importance of WASH for delivering effective infection prevention and control and tackling the rise of antimicrobial resistance.
The free webinar takes place on Friday May 5 at 11am BST/London, click here to secure your place and get more information.
The members of the Quality Improvement Committee of the Global Sepsis Alliance have composed a statement regarding the operationalization of the proposed diagnostic criteria for the Sepsis-3 definition
The committee is supportive of the updated definition and wish for it to be implemented in such a way that the practice of early recognition and treatment, which has been shown to be effective in reducing sepsis associated mortality, can be balanced by identifying the patients at risk and minimizing overtreatment.
Recently published articles assessing qSOFA, in particular, use the terms ‘diagnostic’ and ‘prognostic’ interchangeably in describing its potential applicability in clinical practice. Our concern is to bring clarity to the available published data and for the safe and appropriate use of the new definition and its proposed diagnostic criteria. In particular, that the clinical context in which the criteria are tested is made very clear so that a prudent assessment of the generalizability of the information can be made and the possibility of harm avoided.
The new definitions of sepsis as recommended by the “Sepsis-3” taskforce include the quick Sepsis-related Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) score as a screening tool for high-risk patients outside the intensive care unit setting and if laboratory testing is unavailable (1). In case of a positive qSOFA score, clinicians should “initiate or escalate therapy as appropriate, and (…) consider referral to critical care or increase the frequency of monitoring, if such actions have not already been undertaken”. In a recent large-scale retrospective study in the US, Churpek and colleagues (2) compared the prediction for hospital mortality and ICU transfer of qSOFA outside the ICU to other early warning scores such as the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) (3), the National Early Warning Score (NEWS) (4) and the SIRS criteria (5), which are part of the former sepsis definitions. They found that although qSOFA was more accurate than the SIRS criteria in predicting adverse outcomes of sepsis in patients on regular wards and the emergency department, it was less accurate than the other early warning scores. The NEWS was the most accurate in predicting adverse outcomes. They also observed that less than 20% of patients with adverse outcomes had a positive qSOFA by the time of infection suspicion, underlining the need of qSOFA recalculation during the course of treatment. In conclusion, general early warning scores hold an important position in the screening and risk-stratification of patients with suspected infectious diseases. Thus, patients may not benefit from replacing early warning scores by qSOFA.
References:
(1) Singer M et al. The third international consensus definitions for sepsis and septic shock (sepsis-3). JAMA 2016;315:801-810.
(2) Churpek M et al. qSOFA, SIRS, and Early Warning Scores for Detecting Clinical Deterioration in Infected Patients Outside the ICU. AJRCCM 2016 Sep 20.
(3) Subbe CP et al. Validation of a modified early warning score in medical admissions. QJM : monthly journal of the Association of Physicians 2001;94:521-526.
(4) Smith GB et al. The ability of the national early warning score (NEWS) to discriminate patients at risk of early cardiac arrest, unanticipated intensive care unit admission, and death. Resuscitation 2013;84:465-470.
(5) Bone RC et al. Definitions for sepsis and organ failure and guidelines for the use of innovative therapies in sepsis. Chest 1992;101:1644-1655.
For her meta-analysis on the global burden of sepsis, Carolin Fleischmann (Center for Sepsis Control and Care, Jena University Hospital, Germany) was awarded the “Hanse Promotionspreis”, a national award for excellent theses in intensive care research, acknowledging the importance of the first systematic analysis of global data on sepsis epidemiology. With 31.5 million sepsis cases and at least 5 million deaths, sepsis is the number one preventable cause of death and a major public health problem worldwide. Global action is needed to reduce the burden of sepsis around the world.
The WHO Executive Board has unanimously decided to recommend the adoption of a resolution on sepsis to the World Health Assembly (WHA).
The WHA is the supreme decision-making body of the WHO. It meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 194 member states. Its main purpose is to determine the policies of the WHO.
The Executive Board is composed of 34 individuals technically qualified in the field of health, each one designated by a Member State elected to do so by the WHA. The board meets twice a year and its main function is to give effect to the decisions and policies of the WHA, to advise it and facilitate its work.
The demands of this resolution represent a quantum leap for the goals that we set out in the World Sepsis Declaration five years ago.
This resolution will enormously strengthen our work on the local, national, and global level. It will help us stop sepsis, the number one preventable death worldwide.
Read and download the full resolution here.
Learn more about the governance structure of the WHO here.
Bill Clinton and Joe Kiani at the PSMF Summit 2017
The 5th Annual Summit of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) took place in Dana Point, California, in early February. The mission of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation is ‘Zero Preventable Deaths by 2020’. Key Speakers were Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the USA, and Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the USA.
This year, the Global Sepsis Alliance underlined its commitment to ‘Zero Preventable Deaths by 2020’ in a speech by Prof. Konrad Reinhart, Chairman of the GSA and the Sepsis Foundation, detailing the past work and future endeavors of the GSA. If you want to see his whole talk, please click here (YouTube).
There will also be the Second Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Bonn, Germany on 29/30 March 2017. Dr. Ron Daniels, CEO of the GSA and Founder and CEO of the UK Sepsis Trust, will speak about the goals and achievements of the UKST. Prof. Konrad Reinhart will also give an update on the resolution on sepsis, which was recently recommended to be adopted by the World Health Assembly in May by the Executive Board of the WHO.
Welcome to the new home of the Global Sepsis Alliance - we hope you like it!
Over the last couple of years, the mission of the GSA has not changed. However, what we do to achieve our goals has drastically become more sophisticated and broader in its scope. Our new website reflects what we do, and what every single one of you can do to help!
If you have suggestions to further improve the website, or miss features and functionality, please do not hesitate to contact us.
