We have helped an international team, led by the University of Edinburgh, obtain £3 million funding and explored the need for their new diagnostic.

Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) affects 20% of patients admitted to intensive care units in the UK and leads to a 2-7-fold increased risk of death. We need to find ways to improve this situation and ensure infections are treated safely and effectively.

Action

An international team, led by Professor Kev Dhaliwal from the University of Edinburgh, has designed a new way of diagnosing lung infection in patients who are critically ill. The method passes a very fine microscope into regions of the lungs after instilling tiny amounts of chemicals which light up only when they contact specific bacteria.

We helped the team obtain around £3 million funding from Wellcome and the Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator.

Through a systematic review, and interviews with UK and USA clinicians, we identified the potential advantages of the technology.

Our work is shaping the design of the project team’s clinical studies which will compare the new technique with the methods that are currently used.

Progress

Our research revealed that current procedures for diagnosing VAP are imperfect and take a long time.

Clinicians agreed there is a need for a new diagnostic test that could provide a more accurate and quicker diagnosis of VAP.

Interviewees believed, with further product development, the new test could improve the diagnosis of VAP and help clinicians decide when to stop antibiotic treatment.

Impact

• We have enhanced the design of the clinical study through identifying which multiple tests to use as a benchmark and what health outcomes to measure.
• Our research suggests that the test could improve the experience of patients admitted to intensive care around the world through quicker diagnosis, more effective treatment and improved quality of care.
• Our publications also provide valuable information to diagnostic developers who are creating other new technologies for identifying VAP.