» What is TIBDN?
The Toronto Invasive Bacterial Diseases Network is
a collaboration of all hospitals, microbiology laboratories, infection
control practitioners, physicians and public health units serving
the population of metropolitan Toronto and Peel Regions (population
3.7 million). Overall, 25 hospitals, 19 laboratories and 85 LTCFs
participate in this surveillance program. All surveillance activities
are co-ordinated with local and provincial health departments.
The goal of this network is to reduce morbidity and mortality
from infectious disease by using surveillance to better understand
risk factors for infection, and to improve the prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of infection.
» Meet the TIBDN Group
» How was TIBDN established?
The network was established under a contract from the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. It is maintained through the
collaboration of the many centers and health care providers involved
in the study, research grants for hypothesis-driven sub-studies
(eg. from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Alberta
Heritage Foundation), as well as Mount Sinai Hospital microbiology
research funds.
» What kind of research does TIBDN participate in?
TIBDN performs population-based surveillance for selected serious
bacterial and viral infections in residents of metropolitan Toronto
and Peel region, collecting isolates, clinical and epidemiologic
data about patients. TIBDN also aims to leverage information from
the system to advance our knowledge and understanding of serious
diseases: the network collaborates actively with investigators
wishing to initiate population-based surveillance for new diseases
in our area (eg. recently for rotavirus infections, West Nile
virus, community-acquired MRSA), and aims to provide isolates
and information to investigators studying pathogenesis, illness
burden, impact of vaccination or treatment programs, and antimicrobial
resistance.
