CDC Gives Infection Control a New Tool with HAI Tracker

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a new tool called CaseTrace to help infection control practitioners stop healthcare-associated infection (HAI) outbreaks.

“A free, browser-based interactive tool designed to help outbreak investigators and healthcare facilities stop HAI outbreaks faster and reduce delays that can lead to potential patient exposures. CaseTrace maps patient movement within and across healthcare settings in a graphical timeline to help investigators identify where and when HAI exposures may have occurred,” CDC said.

CaseTrace is designed for epidemiologists and infection control practitioners. Users can create unique, interactive timelines of outbreaks happening in their facility to:

• Visualize patient stays over time

• Calculate overlap days between patient pairs

• Display clinical events and test results on one timeline

• Highlight case-positive patients or another outcome of interest, such as procedures, treatments, or other outcomes

• Dynamically sort and filter cases

  
  

CDC said to get started, take the following steps:

1. De-identify your patient data. Do NOT upload data containing personally identifiable information (PII) or controlled unclassified information (CCI).

2. Download the provided linelist template and add your de-identified data. For instructions on how to structure your data, refer to the CaseTrace User Manual.

3. Upload your de-identified linelist file to CaseTrace.

4. CaseTrace will generate interactive visualizations.

5. Share your findings via the browser-based tool or download summary and detail tables and graphs.

Note: All uploaded data is automatically deleted at the end of each session. Sessions automatically expire after 30 minutes, CDC said.

Find more information in the CaseTrace User Manual.

Questions? Contact CaseTrace@cdc.gov

Questions or comments on this article? Contact Patrick Connole at pconnole@parkplacelive.com.