Recognizing Impact: Jenine Leal

Jenine Leal is a PhD student in Community Health Sciences.  Her research entails understanding the impact and costs of ­Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) among hospitalized patients and conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis on probiotic use to prevent CDI. The elements of her research include assessing the factors that impact costs, length of stay and mortality among hospital-acquired CDI, determining the propensity or risk of developing CDI while admitted to hospital and finally evaluating whether it is worth investing in probiotics to reduce the risk of CDI among hospitalized patients. 

CDI, one of the leading causes of healthcare-associated infections can cause infectious diarrhea, which may lead to sepsis and death. The incidence and severity of CDI has substantially increased in healthcare settings over the past decade. These infections mostly occur in people who have had both recent medical care and antibiotics. Various organizations (e.g. CDC, PHAC, AHS) have identified C. difficile as a global threat to patient safety where prevention and control strategies are required to reduce the burden and adverse outcomes of C. difficile, however the reality is that there are finite resources of people, time, facilities, and equipment in infection prevention and control. Therefore, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of a prevention strategy is crucial and this work will contribute significantly to this area of limited knowledge and expertise.

Working in IPC monitoring these infections, Jenine questioned what could be done to reduce their burden on patients. However, given that resources of people, time, facilities and knowledge are scarce in IPC she began asking questions around what may be the most cost-effective strategy to reduce the impact of infections. There is an urgent need for expertise in evaluating the costs and consequences of new technologies/interventions and changes in practice within IPC. The skills that she is building during her PhD will allow her to make evidence-based decisions to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care in IPC.

When Jenine is not working on her research, she enjoys spending time with my family (husband and 2 beautiful boys-3 years old and 10 month old) doing fun activities such as swimming and hiking. They also love to travel – visiting family in Manitoba and Ontario throughout the year. They also commit to traveling yearly either to Portugal or someplace internationally they haven’t been before.