FAQ
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is the body’s overwhelming and life-threatening response to an existing infection. It is essentially a chain reaction, where the body’s normal response to fight an infection becomes out of balance. It is a serious, life-threatening medical emergency that can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.
Who gets sepsis?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at least 1.7 million adults in America develop sepsis each year. Sepsis is a leading cause of death in the U.S. and survivors may experience physical, psychological, and cognitive side effects after recovery.
Where can I find more information about sepsis?
Sepsis Alliance website includes information on sepsis for providers, patients, and families. You can find resources for sepsis survivors and caregivers, free clinical resources for improving sepsis care in your medical facility, and tools to get involved raising sepsis awareness.
What is SIC?
Sepsis Innovation Collaborative (SIC) is a multi-stakeholder public/private collaborative that brings clinical, industry, patient advocacy, reimbursement, research, and other relevant stakeholders together with the common mission to better manage infections, solve sepsis, and save lives. SIC members are dedicated to advancing innovative solutions to identify and address gaps in infection prevention and management, sepsis diagnosis and treatment, and survivor services and support to improve patient outcomes and enhance national preparedness and response.
What is the role of Sepsis Alliance in SIC?
Sepsis Alliance is the convening organization for SIC and is responsible for coordinating logistics, determining and securing necessary resources, and facilitating effective collaboration.
I do not represent an organization or company, can I still join SIC?
Thank you for your interest in SIC. While we are not accepting new members at this time, to learn more you can contact Sepsis Alliance CEO Thomas Heymann at theymann@sepsis.org.
What is IMSCC?
SIC is organized into several community groups, each focused on a specific priority issue area. In the medical device ecosystem, collaborative communities bring together stakeholders to achieve common outcomes, solve shared challenges, and leverage collective opportunities. The Infection Management/Sepsis Collaborative Community (IMSCC) provides a venue to enhance the understanding of SIC members’ perspectives by fostering communication and knowledge sharing, to better align on regulatory requirements and science in the medical device ecosystem. The development of the IMSCC was guided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) Collaborative Communities Toolkit.
How do I get involved?
Thank you for your interest in SIC. While we are not accepting new members at this time, to learn more you can contact Sepsis Alliance CEO Thomas Heymann at theymann@sepsis.org.
What is SDC?
SIC is organized into several community groups, each focused on a specific priority issue area. The Sepsis Data Community (SDC) is an SIC member initiative to create a national sepsis data trust.
What is a patient data trust? How is it different than a disease registry?
A data trust is an anonymized, readily available collection of data about a group of patients with a shared condition or experience. It is similar to a disease registry — which is a collection of clinical data about a shared condition — with some key differences.
Registries are one-directional: data go into them, but only come out for a select few. There is little emphasis on the collaborative and contributory role of patients and other members of the public. Data trusts emphasize data as a public good, and so they are bi-directional: privacy-protected data go in and, for anyone invested in better understanding a condition like sepsis, can be accessed.
Data trusts are also explicit about governance and how data are managed. Trusts, unlike registries, often have structured frameworks for oversight of data’s use and privacy, which creates transparency that is in the public interest.
Will trusts require more paperwork by doctors and nurses?
No. The intention of a national sepsis data trust is to leverage data that are already collected and reported to various organizations and governmental entities.
Don't we already track the quality of care delivered to sepsis patients?
Medicare and a number of states require reporting of some sepsis-related information, usually in summary form. These data are useful in the aggregate but are not helpful to understand which patients are more likely to get sepsis and which treatments work best. A national sepsis data trust would leverage and integrate these and other existing sepsis tracking tools.
Who would run a sepsis data trust?
It’s too soon to say how a national data trust would operate, and who would run it. SDC is drafting a pathway to a national sepsis data trust that will help answer this and other questions. Data governance is key to how a data trust would operate.
How soon will we have a national sepsis data trust?
Creating an integrated national sepsis data trust will depend on a collaborative approach between all stakeholders, including but not limited to health care providers, insurers, researchers, patients, and government. SDC is engaging each of these critical stakeholders as we define the design and implementation plan for a national sepsis data trust. We are currently in the exploratory phase.
I still have questions, who do I contact?
Please contact Thomas Heymann at theymann@sepsis.org with any additional questions.