SBRI Contract Awarded
IML is delighted to have been awarded a contract for Detection and Identification of Infectious Agents: Assessing the impact of near patient testing.

Our focus is on Sepsis diagnosis in the early stages. The first phase of the project is for 18 months looking at "Quantifying the Economic Impact on Sepsis Patient Care Pathway by Point-of-Care Testing". The documented incidence of sepsis worldwide is 1.8 million cases per year, but low diagnostic rates and difficulties in tracking it in many countries mean that the true figure is likely to be significantly higher. Estimates of 18 million cases have been made. There are more than 350,000 deaths every year across Europe and the USA at a cost of €25bn. In the UK, sepsis costs the NHS about £2.3bn a year and causes 36,000-64,000 deaths. The mortality rate from severe sepsis is 28-50%. Patients with severe sepsis use 46% of all intensive care unit bed days and the risk of death increases by 6-10% every hour from onset of septic shock to the start of effective treatment. The incidence of sepsis is rising and as risk factors for increasing mortality include advancing age, with the growing elderly population, sepsis can only become a greater and greater burden for society.

We will be specifically investigating the impact (costs and outcomes) of introducing a POC Procalcitonin test into the management of patients presenting with symptoms of sepsis as they are admitted to A&E. In order to do this we will be working closely with a Sepsis expert at Luton and Dunstable Hospital for access to patient data and with a renowned academic in her field for economic modeling.