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StPetersburgBoston

St. Petersburg, Russia / Boston, Massachusetts

1999-2003


Focus: Infection Control, Antibiotic Resistance



The Partners

US Partner: Harvard Medical International (HMI) in collaboration with the Hospital Infection Prevention and Quality Assessment (INQUAL), the New England Chapter of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), and the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Inc. (SHEA) are leaders in the fields of infection control, surveillance and antibiotic resistance.

NIS Partner: The Department of Epidemiology of the St. Petersburg Medical Academy in the name of I.I. Mechnikov is a state-of-the-art training center providing basic and advanced infection control training to hospital epidemiologists, nurses and clinicians in the North-West region of the Russian Federation. The center is licensed by the Russian Ministries of Health and Education and serves as an epidemiological center of excellence, providing practical advice and expertise to infection control practitioners. In addition, the center served as the model for other regional infection control training centers in the Russian Federation and Eurasia. The Center's faculty has conducted numerous training-of-trainers sessions for their colleagues from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia and various regions of the Russian Federation.



Partnership Objectives

The partnership's overall goal was to support and enhance the St. Petersburg Infection Control Training and Research Center (ICTC) so that it could serve as a national and regional resource for hospital epidemiology and evidence-based medicine. Specific objectives were to:

  • Coordinate the technical review and revision of Russian Federation Regulation 720 to modernize the prevention, identification and treatment of nosocomial infections in the Russian Federation.
  • Coordinate a regional, hospital-based antibiotic surveillance program to evaluate antimicrobial use in hospitals in order to better focus hospital efforts on infection control measures optimizing antimicrobial use.
  • Develop clinical practice guidelines to decrease the rates of nosocomial infections.
  • Expand and enhance the ITCT curriculum to include surgical site infection prophylaxis (for surgeons) and evidence-based medicine training (for public health and clinic leaders).
Achievements


Policy and Legislation

  • The St. Petersburg partners were asked by the Russian Minister of Health to revise and update Prikaz #720, a policy first issued in 1978 to address infection control practices and surgical and wound infections.
  • Partners participated in two planning meetings focused on Prikaz #720 and provided guidance, to the temporary working group developed to oversee the revision of this policy. The MOH accepted the recommendations of the working group.


Conferences

  • Partners participated in the CDC-sponsored Decennial Conference on International Nosocomial and Healthcare Associated Infections conference and presented three posters
  1. Use of WHONET Software and Electronic Communication for Monitoring Antimicrobial Resistance: Preliminary Results from the Newly Independent States
  2. Challenges in Quality Improvement in Peri-Operative Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Russian Hospitals
  3. Development of a Russian Epidemiologist's Workstation Using Adapted Public

Domain Tools

  • The St. Petersburg partners, in cooperation with the Mechnikov Medical Academy, the Russian Ministry of Health, and the Goldsmith Foundation of New York, hosted the Third International Russian Applied Research Conference in September 2003. Nearly 400 Russian infection control specialists and policy makers attended the conference which was designed to explore challenges in the area of epidemiology and prevention of nosocomial infections in Russia. The conference also directed attention to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region and its impact on the general population as well as health care providers. Four US experts made presentations on the treatment of HIV/AIDS, mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, and addressing HIV/AIDS infection in community practice.

 
Surveillance

  • St. Petersburg partners engaged in a study of peri-operative antibiotic prophylaxis. The St. Petersburg International Surgical Infections Working Group was formed to conduct the study and have developed the nucleus of a system for surveillance of surgical site infections.
  • The partners conducted the first ever study of the Hawthorne effect on improving hand hygiene.
  • The partners investigated, and successfully ended, a cluster of klebsiella infections at a St. Petersburg Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
  • A WHONET site was established at a partnership hospital to assist the partners in identifying drug resistance and to encourage more prudent use of antibiotics.

Training

  • Partners developed a CD-ROM, "The Hospital Epidemiologist's Workstation," containing the most recent versions of Epi-INFO and WHONET software (both translated into Russian), produced from surgical site infection studies and updated infection control guidelines published by APIC.
  • A 10-day workshop on Clinical Epidemiology/Evidence-based Medicine was held in St. Petersburg in December 2001. Participants included nineteen Russian PHC partners, five partners from the St. Petersburg ICTC and five non-partners from St. Petersburg.
  • The partners routinely conduct basic and advanced infection control courses for the hospitals located in the Northwest Region of Russia.

 



Partnership Data

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in October 1999.


Participating Institutions

 


Contact Information for St. Petersburg, Russia / Boston, Massachusetts

NIS/CEE Partner

Information Coordinator
Aslanov, Batyr
St. Petersburg Medical Academy in the name of I.I. Mechnikov
Pisarevskii Prospect, 47
St. Petersburg, Russia 195067
Email:  batyra@mail.ru
Fax:  (7812) 543-0034

NIS Partnership Representative
Zueva, Ludmila
Deputy Rector for Post Graduate Education
St. Petersburg Medical Academy in the name of I.I. Mechnikov
Pisarevskii Prospect, 47
St. Petersburg, Russia 195067
Email:  uzueva@mail.line.ru
Phone 1:  (7812) 543-0241
Fax:  (7812) 543-0034

Information Coordinator
Eremin, Sergei
St. Petersburg Medical Academy in the name of I.I. Mechnikov
Pisarevskii Prospect, 47
St. Petersburg, Russia 195067
Email:  eremin@mail.ru
Fax:  (7812) 543-0034


US Partner

US Partnership Representative
O'Rourke, Edward   MD
Harvard Medical International
One Renaissance Park, 9th Floor
1135 Tremont Street
Boston, MA United States 02120
Email:  orourkeej@aol.com
Email 2:  edward_o'rourke@hms.harvard.edu
Phone 1:  617-535-6400
Fax:  (617) 535-6410

US Partnership Coordinator
Regan, Margaret
Harvard Medical International
One Renaissance Park, 9th Floor
1135 Tremont Street
Boston, MA United States 02120
Email:  margaret_regan@hms.harvard.edu
Phone 1:  (617) 535-6432
Fax:  (617) 535-6410

 

 

Related Events

Mechnikov International Infection Control Conference – St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Russia
September 18, 2003 - September 19, 2003

Surgical Site Infection (SSI) Conference
St. Petersburg, Russia
June 24, 2002 - June 28, 2002
This conference focused on the prevention of surgical site infections and use of evidence-based medicine to evaluate and revise current clinical practices.  Building on the latest clinical reviews, the workshop also addressed development and implementation strategies for clinical practice guidelines and continuing technical assistance to the Russian Ministry of Health to revise antiquated health care legislation.  The training brought together representatives of St. Petersburg hospitals as well as healthcare administrators from Murmansk, Pskov and Chelyabinsk.  A representative from the Tbilisi ICTC also participated in this event.

Workshop on Epidemiology & Surveillance Strategies for Health Promotion
Tbilisi, Georgia
March 18, 2002 - March 23, 2002
This two-part workshop focused on modern surveillance and epidemiology of chronic disease and behavioral risk factors leading to chronic disease states and public health intervention and community participation in intervention efforts, with particular emphasis on tobacco use and cessation of smoking by adolescents Topics included discussions on modern surveillance techniques, analysis and dissemination of surveillance data, public health informatics, and communicating results of surveillance to responsible public health officials and the community.




Updated on May 23, 2004