Sepsis is a life-threatening bloodstream infection that requires swift intervention with appropriate antibiotics to reduce morbidity and mortality. Presentations for sepsis are usually acute, complex, and represent a significant health and economic burden. In Australia there are approximately 100,000 hospitalisations for sepsis annually, with a death rate of approximately 10%. Over 80% of cases require acute care, and almost a quarter will be admitted to intensive care. Hospital stays for sepsis are on average around 7 times longer than the average for non-sepsis admissions.
Sepsis disproportionately affects vulnerable groups such as people from low socioeconomic backgrounds. People living in regional, rural and remote areas experience delayed confirmation of diagnosis for sepsis due to distance from central pathology services, and this contributes to poorer outcomes for the patient and increased costs to the health system.
In this webinar, you’ll hear about a project that aims to investigate the health and economic burden of sepsis in Western Australia, and the risk factors for and consequences of receiving a sepsis diagnosis. This aim will be achieved by examining patient pathways from a 20-year period, from linked datasets from public housing, education, disability services, death registration, and hospital and emergency admissions.
Libby is a clinical researcher in the School of Population Health at Curtin University, with expertise in health services research, epidemiology, rural and remote health, and implementation science. Libby leads research into chronic and acute disease care, including the WA CKD Data Linkage Project, and the Adaptive Diagnostics for Emerging Pandemic Threats (ADEPT) sepsis project.
Sharmani is an epidemiologist and biostatistician who has experience in the academic, government and private health sectors in England and Australia, and is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Population Health, Curtin University. Sharmani has developed techniques for the analysis of linked data for the evaluation of population health interventions, including the NHS Health Check. More recently, she has developed techniques for the estimation of excess mortality and mortality displacement resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, estimates that have been used for monitoring and decision making. Sharmani has also worked in both academic and NGO sectors in the UK, India, and within Africa in the areas of water and sanitation and sexual and reproductive health.
Kathryn is a data scientist specialising in transdisciplinary research, focusing on bridging gaps across biological, medical, and social sciences through data science and analytical techniques. She leads the Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative (COKI) technical team and manages the data science team within the Curtin Institute for Data Science at Curtin University, where she works with technical teams to build digital tools and infrastructure to make data more accessible and impactful. With a strong focus on practical, solutions-oriented data science, Kathryn has contributed to diverse projects, from bioinformatics and plant virus diagnostics to improving health systems and chronic disease management. She is currently collaborating with the School of Population Health to develop analytical pipelines for large, linked datasets for the investigation of sepsis.
The session will be recorded. The recording will be provided to registrants but not published.
The Australian Sensitive Data Interest Group (AUSDIG) provides an opportunity for anyone interested in discussing the challenges and strategies for managing sensitive data. To watch previous meetings and join the mailing list, visit the AUSDIG website.
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