STERIS Corporation doubles grant funding to University
Hospitals for Infection Prevention Research
STERIS Corporation has announced its third grant to University
Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) to support research in the areas
of healthcare-associated and emerging infections and the development
of innovative strategies and technologies for preventing infection
and contamination.
The new grant of $600,000 to UHC’s Division of Infectious
Diseases will help sustain research over the next three years
and will build upon a relationship that began with initial funding
in 1999 and renewed funding in 2002.
"This joint effort between STERIS Corporation and University
Hospitals of Cleveland has been an enormous success and continues
to serve as a paradigm for relationships between industry and
academia," said Robert Salata, M.D., Chief of the Division
of Infectious Diseases at UHC.
"Healthcare-associated infections are a growing problem
around the world and it is important to continue investigating
ways to better prevent and treat them."
"We are pleased to continue our support of University
Hospitals of Cleveland," said Dr. Peter A. Burke, STERIS’s
Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. "As
recent studies indicate, healthcare-associated and emerging
infections continue to pose a significant public threat and
are difficult and expensive to treat. We believe this research
has the potential to produce new infection prevention techniques
and treatments to help ensure better patient outcomes."
Burke added that this research may also lead to the development
of new infection prevention technologies that can be used by
researchers and scientists in many other key areas of interest
to STERIS. The relationship promises to enhance the overall
research programs of both STERIS Corporation and University
Hospitals of Cleveland.
Under the previous STERIS grants, 24 research projects were
funded for emerging infections and infection prevention involving
hepatitis C, tuberculosis, anthrax, obstetrics, and West Nile
Virus, as well as Prion Disease (Mad Cow) and various other
antibiotic resistant bacterial infections. Additionally, researchers
looked into assessing the impact of infections in such areas
as the intensive care and bone marrow transplant units. The
research has resulted in 31 scientific publications and manuscripts.
In addition, subsequent funding has been procured for 13 of
the STERIS initiatives including nine grants from the National
Institutes of Health.
"We are grateful and honored that STERIS has again provided
funding that will be directly linked to improving the quality
of healthcare," said Fred C. Rothstein, MD, President and
CEO of University Hospitals of Cleveland. "These pilot
grants provide opportunities to researchers at UHC which are
already leading to exciting discoveries."
As an example, the support made additional research possible
on catheter biofilm infections, which is now leading to developments
that could lower the rate of infection in patients who require
the use of a catheter or a port for extended periods of time.
The importance of these activities is reinforced by statistics
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which estimate
that 90,000 deaths in the year 2000 were linked to hospital
infections, making them the fourth leading cause of death in
the United States behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.
