The Global Sepsis Alliance Proudly Announces the Winners of the 2018 Global Sepsis Awards

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The Global Sepsis Awards, which are sponsored by the Erin Kay Flatley Memorial Foundation, honor outstanding efforts to increase sepsis awareness and raise the quality of sepsis prevention and management. The awards are granted in three categories, namely governments and healthcare authorities, non-governmental organizations, patient advocate or healthcare provider groups, and individuals, consistent with the aims of the World Sepsis Declaration and the World Sepsis Day Movement.

 

WINNERS CATEGORY I - GOVERNMENTS AND HEALTHCARE AUTHORITIES

The winners in category I are the Ministry of Health from Saudi Arabia and the Centers of Diseases Control and Prevention from the United States.

The Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia is awarded for its efforts to improve sepsis care in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by a national strategy following the requests set out in the WHO/WHA Resolution: “Improving the Prevention, Diagnosis and Clinical Management of Sepsis”. These efforts included:

  • Conduct of multiple workshops and meetings to identify the problem and increase awareness among healthcare workers.

  • Introduction of sepsis bundles as quality indicators into the ministries of health clinical audit program.

  • Integration of sepsis key performance indicators as part of the hospital performance measures.

  • Development of an extensive report with external advice to document and guide the process

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US) are awarded for their outstanding programs and activities which were developed over the last four years in collaboration with patient advocate groups and sepsis experts from U.S. These efforts resulted in:

  • Epidemiologic studies that improved the understanding of the true medical, human and financial burden of sepsis in the US. The results are used by the US Department of Health to develop and undertake respective action in the context of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) program designed to save lives and protect Americans.

  • The development and provision of excellent educational materials on the CDC website for lay people and health care workers to raise awareness of the early signs of sepsis and inform about the sepsis aftermaths

  • The development of a toolkit which can be used to plan and conduct successful quality improvement initiatives on sepsis recognition and management in US hospitals

 

Winners Category II - Non-governmental organizations, patient advocate groups or healthcare provider groups

The winners in category II are the Sepsis Alliance and the Fundación Sepsis México!

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The Sepsis Alliance is the leading non-governmental organization on sepsis operating in the United States today. The SA was founded in 2007 by Dr. Carl Flatley after the tragic and unnecessary loss of his 23-year old daughter Erin from sepsis. The SA  is an unceasing and committed leader in the fight to put sepsis in the spotlight and raise public awareness as well as citizen concern under the motto “So more survive”. The numerous initiatives included the following outstanding activities:

  • Being part of the visionary team that put forward the successful blueprint for a Global Sepsis Alliance in 2010

  • Launch of the first Sepsis Awareness Month in 2011 and creation of the national Sepsis Heroes program and gala in 2012

  • Collaborative work across borders with government agencies, healthcare providers, other advocacy groups, patient groups, survivors, and their loved ones

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The Fundación Sepsis México under the leadership of Luis Antonio Gorordo Delsol became the driving force for the World Sepsis Day Movement in Mexico and Central America. This is evidenced by activities such as:

  • The translation and dissemination of World Sepsis Day promotional materials and infographics into Spanish

  • Fundación Sepsis México also facilitated the dialogue and cooperation between the national medical professional societies whose involvement and collaboration is key to foster the quality of sepsis management in Mexico

  • Since 2016, the chair of the Fundación Sepsis México collaborated with Mexican Health authorities and the Global Sepsis Alliance in the development of the improved version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD – 11 draft) of the WHO to ensure that sepsis is adequately diagnosed

 

Winners Category III - Individual Nominees

The winners in category III are Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud from Canada, Dr. Stephen Macdonald from Australia, and Team Sue from the United States.

Dr. Fox-Robichaud was awarded for the following achievements:

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Leading the development and the implementation of the “Sepsis Module” which is an interprofessional and simulation-based training initiative geared towards increasing the capacity of healthcare teams in Hamilton (Canada) to manage sepsis from multiple vantages

  • Guiding the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Hamilton Early Warning Score (HEWS) over the past 8 years. This digital real-time monitoring system detects early signs of sepsis or diminishing health and alerts the patient's care team so that they can quickly intervene

  • Heading the Team Sepsis: Bench to Bedside, a strategic initiative at Hamilton Health Sciences which takes laboratory techniques and integrates them into routine clinical care

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Dr. Macdonald was awarded for the following activities:

  • His engagement as specialist emergency physician in the context of a National Sepsis Forum hosted by the Australian Sepsis Network and the George Institute for Global Health aimed to raise community/professional awareness of sepsis and harmonize clinical and research priorities across Australia. This exercise resulted in a health policy report entitled Stopping Sepsis: A National Action Plan

  • His leading role in designing and conducting landmark clinical trials which have improved our understanding of the place of fluids and vasopressors in sepsis

Team Sue was awarded for the following activities:

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  • Sue is a sepsis survivor. Sue has shown unwavering courage, determination, and resilience in the face of catastrophic injuries from her illness.

  • She has mentored other amputees, participated in adventure activities to raise sepsis and limb loss awareness, such as skydiving

  • Team Sue has shared their story at hospitals and healthcare systems in Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Nevada, New Jersey, and Arizona as it seeks to raise sepsis awareness and educate people on this devastating illness

  • Team Sue has published all activities in the fight against sepsis on their own homepage

Congratulations to all 2018 GSA Award Winners!
All awardees will receive their trophy at an upcoming international congress. Winners in category II and III will receive $2,500 prize money each. A huge thanks to everybody who applied.
Applications and nominations for the 2019 GSA Award open in January 2019 and close on March 31st, 2019.

Marvin Zick