Feasibility Study: Integrating Games-Based Learning and Computational Modelling to Control MRSA.

MRSA is a 'super-bug' that is difficult to control using antibiotics, and is most common in hospitals. Around 1 in 10 people admitted to hospital will contract an infection during their stay. You can become infected through physical contact with either another infected person or a surface like a door handle already touched by an infected person. If you are really ill, as many people are in hospital, the infection can kill you. There are ways to limit the spread of MRSA in hospitals, including healthcare workers following strict hygiene measures such as washing their hands between patients, isolating infected patients and even closing down hospital wards where infections occur. The problem is that each option can cost a lot of money which could otherwise be used to treat patients and nobody knows the best way to use these different options together to manage an outbreak of MRSA.Researchers have turned to computer modelling to help them understand how to manage the complicated range of factors involved in spreading the infection. The models show that the pattern of movements of healthcare workers among patients is really important and if the activities of healthcare workers are managed properly then spread can be limited. Also crucial is the degree to which healthcare workers follow the hygiene measures. Effective training of healthcare workers on the importance of following the hygiene rules can also limit spread. Most important of all, the models show that each individual person involved can make a big difference to the occurrence and spread of the disease. To decide how to manage the spread of infection in a particular ward, you need to know about the ward layout and the people that work and are being treated in that ward. Unfortunately, none of the models cater for differences in the behaviour of individual healthcare workers and the health of individual patients. Also, these models do not represent the layout of the ward, and how healthcare workers move around in the ward itself. We have developed a computer model that takes into account both the layout and the individuals in a hospital ward. We will add data about healthcare worker behaviour, healthcare activities among patients and individual patient health from a special study ward in a hospital into the model. We will also include data from different studies on the different ways to manage the spread of MRSA. We will combine our MRSA spread model with an existing training tool to teach healthcare workers about the importance of following the hygiene rules. We will clearly demonstrate to them how many patients one careless person can infect, and how careful they need to be to help reduce infections. This training tool uses a computer game approach to provide an interesting way of teaching.Since the computer model predicts realistic outcomes, it can also be used by managers to choose the best method of containing an ongoing outbreak. We will use artificially intelligent search techniques to identify the best way of combining different approaches to contain the spread. The same approach can also be used by managers to identify ways of reducing infections in the first place, and to plan ahead by getting the computer to simulate different possible scenarios and to identify ways of dealing with them. The system that we are aiming to build will help hospitals manage the spread of MRSA in a cost-effective way. It will show hospital managers possible ways of limiting spread in their hospital, and teach healthcare workers about the difference they can make in reducing the chance of an outbreak.