# Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst (RHEA) Modeling the Environment (MODE)

> **NIH NIH R01** · GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY · 2021 · $433,322

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY ABSTRACT
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a top 10 cause of death in the US. Contamination of the
healthcare environment is an important but overlooked means of transmitting pathogens and HAIs,
particularly gram-positive pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and
vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). Evidence shows that many healthcare environments are not
adequately cleaned, even with institutional policies consistent with national guidance. Many issues contribute
to the lack of adequate environmental cleaning. New environmental cleaning and monitoring technology
and processes show some promise but evaluating them can be complex. The impact of environmental
transmission and various cleaning and monitoring approaches extends beyond individual healthcare facilities
and involves the dynamic ecosystem of healthcare facilities in a region. Computational modeling that integrates
economic, operational, and epidemiologic components can help better understand and address the
ecosystem-wide effects of environmental transmission, cleaning, and monitoring. Therefore, our proposed
RHEA-MODE project will modify and substantially expand our existing Orange County (OC) and Chicago
agent-based models (ABMs) to better understand healthcare environment transmission, cleaning, and
monitoring. Our team is led by two seasoned investigators who have worked together for over a decade on
developing ABMs to better understand the spread, impact, and control of HAIs and have over a combined 20
years of experience as Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) investigators. The project will
bring four major categories of additions to RHEA: (1) creating much more detailed and explicit representations
of the internal structures of healthcare facilities and the movement of patients, (2) introducing healthcare
worker and environmental services (EVS) staff agents in order to more explicitly represent and evaluate their
actions and behaviors, (3) giving RHEA the capability of handling multiple pathogens simultaneously, because
the environment and cleaning methods affect multiple pathogens at once, and (4) explicit representations of
various types of environmental cleaning methods and the processes involved. Specific Aim 1 will introduce
into our regional simulation models a detailed representation of the healthcare facility environment and its role
in the transmission of MRSA and VRE in hospitals and nursing homes under various conditions and
circumstances. Specific Aim 2 will explore how a variety of environmental cleaning products and methods can
reduce MRSA and VRE transmission, prevalence, and health and economic impact based upon the expanded
regional simulation models from Aim 1. Specific Aim 3 will evaluate the economic value of different
combinations of environmental cleaning methods and approaches and other MRSA and VRE prevention and
control measures under varying circumstances to identify the most suitabl...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10180980
- **Project number:** 5R01GM127512-02
- **Recipient organization:** GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY
- **Principal Investigator:** Bruce Y Lee
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $433,322
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-06-04 → 2024-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10180980

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10180980, Regional Healthcare Ecosystem Analyst (RHEA) Modeling the Environment (MODE) (5R01GM127512-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10180980. Licensed CC0.

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