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decorative A new pilot scheme to monitor infections in care homes across England is being co-led by UCL researchers. The VIVALDI Social Care project, commissioned by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and carried out in collaboration with The Outstanding Society, Care England, and NHS England, will work with over 500 care homes in England to monitor infections such as Covid-19, flu, norovirus, and urinary tract infections, and analy s'e the resultant anonymi s'ed data to help reduce the impact of infections and outbreaks in care homes for older adults. The pilot follows the VIVALDI study on Covid-19 in care homes which played a crucial role during the pandemic. It helped inform decisions on limiting staff movement between care homes to reduce infection risk and highlighted the need for sick pay for care home workers. Principal investigator Professor Laura Shallcross (UCL Institute of Health Informatics), who also led the earlier VIVALDI study, said: "The VIVALDI Social Care project is a fantastic opportunity for researchers, residents, relatives, staff, and care providers to work together to tackle the problem of infections and outbreaks in care homes. "By learning lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, we aim to find new, better ways to protect residents that do not impact negatively on their quality of life." The pilot study will be underpinned by a data platform co-designed with people who live and work in care homes. It will connect lists of care home residents with routine datasets already held by the NHS, including hospital admissions, mortality data, immunisations, laboratory test results, and prescriptions, all using a common pseudo-identifier based on NHS numbers.
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