# Contact Network Transmission Modeling of Healthcare Associated Infections

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2021 · $1,200,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are a major source of mortality and morbidity and affect about two million
patients each year. Within hospitals, pathogens like Clostridioides difficile and methicillin-resistant Staphylococ-
cus aureus (MRSA) are routinely transmitted to and among hospitalized patients: also of particular concern are
multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs), because HAIs caused by these pathogens are increasingly difficult to
treat. These infections can be amplified in hospitals, transmitted to other hospitals, long-term or skilled-care facil-
ities, and then, eventually, to the community at large. Developing effective interventions to prevent the spread of
HAIs remains an important public health goal, and demands some means by which the effectiveness of proposed
interventions (or combinations thereof) can be efficiently and inexpensively compared. In fields where experi-
ments are not possible, mathematical models and simulations can yield insight into how a system responds to
the intervention under study.
 The overarching theme of this project is to overcome existing barriers for modeling the spread of HAIs. We
hypothesize that high-fidelity models derived from complex, fine-grained data can be used to understand the
acquisition and transmission of HAIs within and across healthcare facilities. Simulations based on our models
can be used to compare alternative interventions and provide effective and practical guidance for how to reduce
the transmission of MDROs and other pathogens capable of causing HAIs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10241230
- **Project number:** 5U01CK000594-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** PHILIP M POLGREEN
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,200,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-01 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10241230

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10241230, Contact Network Transmission Modeling of Healthcare Associated Infections (5U01CK000594-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10241230. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*