Microbiology

The goal of this study is to evaluate the impact of a diagnostic algorithm combining culture-based and molecular methods on the frequency of etiotropic antibiotic therapy prescription within 14 days of diagnosis of infective endocarditis

Blood culture (BC) is the gold standard for the definitive diagnosis of bacteraemia, providing the opportunity to recover and identify the causative organism, and optimize subsequent antimicrobial treatment. Detection of bacteraemia is critical for the management of sepsis. This study aims to examine the performance of the blood culture pathway in Gloucestershire Hospitals Trust using data analysis, questionnaires and focus groups. . Information collected will be used to design interventions that could be used to optimise the blood culture pathway

The goal of this clinical trial is to test the ability of different bacterial products in restoring natural gut microbiota in C-section born infants. The main question it aims to answer is: Do maternally derived strains of bacteria perform better than commercially available probiotic strains in restoring the gut microbiota of C-section born infants? Researchers will compare the gut microbiota of treated infants to that of untreated C-section born infants and untreated vaginally born infants to see if the bacterial treatments cause the microbiota to resemble that of vaginally born infants. Participants will be given a bacterial product orally once daily for either one or four weeks and be asked to collect faecal, urine and saliva samples.

The goal of this clinical trial is to study whether the use of our blood culture prediction tool is non-inferior to current practice and if it can improve certain outcomes in all adult patients presenting to the emergency department with a clinical indication for a blood culture analysis (according to the treating physician). The primary endpoint is 30-day mortality. Key secondary outcomes are: * hospital admission rates * in-hospital mortality * hospital length-of-stay. In the intervention group, the physician will follow the advice of our blood culture prediction tool. In the comparison group all patients will undergo a blood culture analysis.