Section for Hospital Hygiene and Environmental Health, Center for Infectious Diseases, Heidelberg University Hospital, Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Infection Prevention and Hospital Hygiene, University Hospital Innsbruck, Anichstraße 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria.
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2022 Nov 3;11(1):131. doi: 10.1186/s13756-022-01176-x.
The spread of SARS-CoV-2, multidrug-resistant organisms and other healthcare-associated pathogens represents supra-regional challenges for infection prevention and control (IPC) specialists in every European country. To tackle these problems, cross-site research collaboration of IPC specialists is very important. This study assesses the extent and quality of national research collaborations of IPC departments of university hospitals located in Austria, England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, identifies network gaps, and provides potential solutions.
Joint publications of IPC heads of all university hospitals of the included countries between 1st of June 2013 until 31st of May 2020 were collected by Pubmed/Medline search. Further, two factors, the journal impact factor and the type/position of authorship, were used to calculate the Scientific Collaboration Impact (SCI) for all included sites; nationwide network analysis was performed.
In five European countries, 95 sites and 125 responsible leaders for IPC who had been in charge during the study period were identified. Some countries such as Austria have only limited national research cooperations, while the Netherlands has established a gapless network. Most effective collaborating university site of each country were Lille with an SCI of 1146, Rotterdam (408), Berlin (268), Sussex (204), and Vienna/Innsbruck (18).
The present study indicates major differences and room for improvement in IPC research collaborations within each country and underlines the potential and importance of collaborating in IPC.
SARS-CoV-2、多药耐药菌和其他与医疗保健相关的病原体的传播，对欧洲每个国家的感染预防和控制（IPC）专家构成了超区域挑战。为了解决这些问题，IPC 专家的跨地点研究合作非常重要。本研究评估了位于奥地利、英国、法国、德国和荷兰的大学医院 IPC 部门的国家研究合作的程度和质量，确定了网络差距，并提供了潜在的解决方案。
通过 Pubmed/Medline 搜索，收集了参与国家所有大学医院的 IPC 负责人在 2013 年 6 月 1 日至 2020 年 5 月 31 日期间的联合出版物。此外，使用期刊影响因子和作者类型/职位两个因素，计算了所有参与地点的科学合作影响（SCI）；进行了全国性网络分析。
在五个欧洲国家中，确定了 95 个地点和 125 名负责 IPC 的负责人，他们在研究期间负责 IPC。一些国家，如奥地利，国家研究合作有限，而荷兰则建立了无差距的网络。每个国家最有效的合作大学机构是里尔，SCI 为 1146，鹿特丹（408），柏林（268），苏塞克斯（204），维也纳/因斯布鲁克（18）。
本研究表明，IPC 研究合作在每个国家内部以及合作方面存在重大差异和改进空间，并强调了 IPC 合作的潜力和重要性。
