Availability and utilization of new technologies for prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections

Background and AimRecently new technologies have emerged to improve prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. Our aim is to verify availability and use of new technologies for infection controllers. MethodsWe conducted a survey in infection controllers from the whole state of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, by invitation of a social media group, in August 2022. Nine different technologies were evaluated about availability and use. Categoricals and continuous variables were evaluated by the chi-square test and Mann-Whitney U test, respectively. A value of p less than .05 was considered as statistically significant. ResultsOne hundred-eight persons answered the questionnaire. The mean age was 42.8 years (24-64 years) and 53/108 (49.1%) reported most workload in public hospitals, 45/108 (41.7%) in private hospitals and 10/108 (9.2%) reported the same workload in public and private hospitals. Out of 108, 63% reported teaching activities in his institutions. There was no correlation between the existence of teaching activities and hospital profile (p=0.42). The most common new technology available was molecular biology (PCR) for microbiological samples research for 73/108 (67.6%) participants. The second new technology available was APP for HAI prevention and control for 33/108 (30.6%), 19/108 (17.6%) reported availability of none technology. ConclusionMolecular biology (PCR) for microbiological samples research was the most common technology available for infection controllers of an important state of Brazil.