Project HIRaCAARI Brief Summary

  • Significance
  • Focuses on educating communities within the Atlanta area at risk for antibiotic resistant bacteria (e.g., MRSA) on health information and resources available through the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
  • Providers will be given adequate training on clinical practices and NLM resources to educate their patients.
  • Through this program—health literacy will increase, health disparities will decrease, health professionals will be more informed, and the preference and reputation of NLM will increase.
  • Background
  • Antibiotic resistance is a nationally escalating problem affecting mainly minority populations.
  • A particular resistant strain of Staph called MRSA is especially problematic as it tends to spread within hospitals and other facilities to household members.
  • Spatial statistical software has been used to determine potential high-risk areas.
  • Resources used in this study are from MSM’s Library Services, Clinical Research Center, National Center for Primary Care, Departments of Pediatrics, CDC, Georgia’s Emerging Infections Program, Grady Health System, and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta).
  • Incidence of MRSA infections has not gone down significantly despite prevention efforts in the last decade.
  • Goals
  • The overarching goal of Project HIRaCAARI is to reduce health disparities among people of color living in neighborhoods identified to be at risk for developing antibiotic resistant infections through health education and resources.
  • Project HIRaCAARI aims to use geospatial information system technology to identify communities at high risk for Staphylococcus and MRSA infections.
  • Secondly, the project seeks to develop educational interventions for high-risk neighborhoods concerned with the best practices for skin and soft tissue infections particularly MRSA prevention. The format will be an online toolkit.
  • Lastly, this project aims to create a program to teach important stakeholders such as healthcare providers, the general public, and such community workers as public librarians and others to access and use NLM health information resources on antibiotic resistant prevention.
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