We are thrilled to announce that the virtual photo booth and interactive world map for #WorldSepsisDay are now ready for your submissions.

The world map allows you to upload what you are planning for #WorldSepsisDay, be it a symposium, sports event, sepsis quiz, online campaign, sepsis awareness stall, illuminate a building, or something entirely else. If you haven’t made plans for this year’s World Sepsis Day yet, it’s not too late to get involved. Ideas, inspiration, and free materials in multiple languages are available here.

The virtual photo booth is a ton of fun and a very easy way to show your support for World Sepsis Day – just click here, snap a selfie, and customize it to your liking by adding a frame, background, logo, or whatever you enjoy.

Have fun, and thanks for helping us raise awareness for sepsis worldwide!

The ESA Annual Meeting is returning on 20 September 2022 in a hybrid format, in person in Brussels and online. It will provide a unique opportunity to hear from policymakers, experts, and patients about progress in sepsis management and integration in health systems, and open challenges requiring a united response. We are excited to confirm that Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, will provide opening remarks. The physical event will be kindly hosted by the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU, while the online live stream will be available on our website. Registrations are now open.

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SEPSIS MANAGEMENT, AN INDICATOR OF QUALITY OF CARE IN EUROPE

In January 2020, anticipating the outburst of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, the most updated data on sepsis were revealed, confirming what experts already suspected: sepsis is the most common cause of death worldwide, one every five, claiming 11 million lives globally every year. The pandemic has also demonstrated that sepsis is the main cause of death amongst COVID-19 patients, affecting almost 80% of those hospitalized in ICU. Furthermore, the similarities between the long-COVID and post-sepsis syndromes are stunning.

Antimicrobial resistance – often called “the silent pandemic” – hampers infection management and facilitates the occurrence of sepsis. Recent data from Sweden confirm the correlation.

Pandemic preparedness, infection management, or AMR strategies cannot prescind from efficient sepsis management. In fact, these are all aspects that comprehensive infection management strategies must include.

What if sepsis quality of care became a key indicator for the performance assessment of health systems? Reduced harm from sepsis means that health systems can prevent, identify and manage infections, and use antimicrobials effectively. However, how can we manage sepsis if we do not collect data systematically in Europe? What can we learn from those countries that have started implementing strategic measures in integrating sepsis in their national health systems?

These are some of the questions that we will try to answer at the 5th ESA annual meeting, with high-level speakers from institutions, experts, and patients.

On September 16, 2022, the Global Sepsis Alliance and the Sepsis Stiftung will join forces to host a unique event celebrating a decade of World Sepsis Day – both in person in Berlin, as well as live streamed on the event website.

Following a scientific symposium with renowned speakers from all over the world and an international best-practices panel, we will celebrate the achievements of the past 10 years, present the Global Sepsis Awards, and conclude this unique World Sepsis Day event with a fundraising dinner, featuring international artists who share our commitment to the vision of “A World Free of Sepsis”.

We are excited to welcome you to Berlin in person in September or see you on the free live stream for the symposium and the best-practices panel.

Global healthcare community Coda is excited to share that they are bringing their highly-anticipated four-day event, #Coda22, to Melbourne this September 11-14.

Standing out amongst an array of immersive sessions is the Sepsis: Leave Nothing and No One Behind workshop. Across four thought-provoking hours, a panel of experts will dive into how and why critically-ill patients with sepsis require so much more than just good medical care.

Sepsis specialists from a diverse range of medical backgrounds (medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, speech pathology, and more) will be placed in the spotlight for this transdisciplinary workshop. They will pay homage to those involved with all aspects of sepsis patient care, whilst also exposing evidence and equity gaps within the field.

The following day – September 13 – will see #Coda22 present a dedicated Sepsis Cure session for World Sepsis Day. Five world experts will tackle a broad spectrum of topics and challenges affecting the global sepsis community including:

• The WHA Sepsis Resolution

• Quality Improvement in an LMIC

• Sepsis and Antimicrobial Stewardship

• The Australian Sepsis Program

Sepsis: Leave Nothing and No One Behind and the dedicated Sepsis Cure session are just two of many engaging sessions on show across four action-packed days at #Coda22.

Thank you so much for participating in the 2022 World Sepsis Congress Spotlight – it was a huge success, thanks to you.

We had over 10,000 registrations from 176 countries, which is very encouraging. 65% of our audience joined from low- and middle-income countries – showing how much interest there is all over the world. This truly highlights our mission with World Sepsis Congress – to bring knowledge about sepsis to all parts of the world.

We are also very excited about your feedback - it was off the charts! You can click through the full report above or download it as a PDF below. Feel free to share this report with family members, friends, or colleagues.

All 8 sessions are already available on YouTube, as a Podcast on Apple Podcasts, and on the congress website. Thanks for your interest over the last weeks – the 4th World Sepsis Congress will return on April 26 and 27, 2023.

On June 30, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care released the national Sepsis Clinical Care Standard, in partnership with GSA Members The George Institute for Global Health and the Australian Sepsis Network.

Australia has become one of the first countries to release a nationally agreed quality framework for the recognition and management of sepsis, through a broad consensus across the health sector.

The standard outlines optimal care for patients in hospitals with suspected sepsis – starting from the onset of signs and symptoms, through to discharge and follow-up care. The launch marks a major milestone in our joint efforts to improve early recognition and provide enhanced clinical care and post-discharge support for patients.

“The Sepsis Clinical Care Standard is a game-changer that will ensure healthcare workers recognize sepsis as a medical emergency and provide coordinated high-quality care to all Australians.”, said Prof. Simon Finfer, Director of the Australian Sepsis Network, Intensivist and Professorial Fellow in the Critical Care Division at The George Institute for Global Health and GSA Vice President.

“If a patient is acutely ill or deteriorating rapidly – and there is no other obvious cause – we must consider sepsis as a possible diagnosis,” said Professor Finfer. “If you suspect sepsis, either as a clinician or a patient, escalate your concerns to a healthcare professional who is skilled in managing sepsis. You must ask, ‘Could this be sepsis?’.”

The Sepsis Clinical Care Standard was the result of a collaboration between leading clinical experts and consumers and translates evidence into clinical practice to reduce preventable death or disability caused by sepsis.

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We are working on assembling a world map, tracking the status of national sepsis strategies across the world – and while we have a good idea of what’s going on, we want to make sure not to miss anything. Is your country also planning or implementing similar initiatives? Please provide your input via the button below.

The newly launched Action on Sepsis Podcast focuses on telling the whole journey of sepsis from the perspective of the patient, along with input from healthcare workers, researchers, and other individuals advocating for improved sepsis care nationally and globally. It was developed by the Patient Advisory Council of the University of British Columbia (UBC) Action on Sepsis Research Excellence Cluster to improve awareness of sepsis among the public and healthcare workers, drawing on patients’ lived experiences to maximize impact and education through story-telling.

Each series in our podcast focus on the story of different sepsis survivor:

• In Series 1, you meet your host, Kristine Russell, sepsis survivor, and parent of a neonatal sepsis survivor. In this series, she discusses the long-term impacts of neonatal and maternal sepsis with clinicians and researchers at UBC and British Columbia Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada.

• Series 2 focuses on Kristin MacDonald, sepsis survivor turned sepsis advocate. In this series, our host discusses the experiences of adult sepsis patients in the ICU with an intensivist from Vancouver, Canada, and delves into the possible role of epigenetics in post-sepsis syndrome with an MD-PhD student at UBC.

• Series 3 focuses on Shannon McKenney, a Juno-nominated singer, and survivor of recurrent sepsis. In this series our host explores two different approaches to improving the identification and management of sepsis:

  • 1) developing new diagnostics using machine learning and changes in gene expression during sepsis, and

  • 2) a BC-wide network focused on improving the quality of sepsis. We also discuss how patients and sepsis survivors can use their lived experiences to support research on sepsis with the BC SUPPORT Unit.

Since sepsis is preventable and treatable if recognized early, increased awareness of sepsis has the potential to significantly reduce death and disability. Yet, public awareness of sepsis and post-sepsis is generally low, and health professionals outside of critical and intensive care medicine typically have limited experience identifying and managing care for patients with sepsis. The Action on Sepsis Podcast provides an accessible platform for in-depth conversations that can be downloaded and listened to at the listener’s convenience, supporting learning by health workers, researchers, and the general public.

Visit the Action on Sepsis website to listen to the podcast. You can also listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast streaming platform:

• Apple Podcasts

• Google Podcasts

• RadioPublic

• RedCircle

• Spotify

• Stitcher

Session 8 from the 2022 World Sepsis Congress Spotlight – ‘Innovations in Quality Improvement Strategies in All Settings’ – is now available on YouTube (embedded above) and as a Podcast on Apple Podcasts (just search for World Sepsis Congress in your favorite podcast app).

The session was chaired by our very own Alison Fox-Robichaud, and features the following presentations and speakers:

• Jos Latour – Todo sobre mi madre – Empowering the Parents, Empowering the Patient

• Aldo Faisal – Using AI to Improve Sepsis Management – Lessons Learned From Development and Implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Clinician

• Fran Balamuth – Improving Early Recognition of Pediatric Sepsis by Digital Support Systems

• Chris Seymour – Untangling Sepsis Heterogeneity - Applying Data-Driven Phenotypes to Future Trial Design

• Annet Alenyo – Prioritizing Quality Improvement for Sepsis in Emergency Medicine

This was the final session of the 2022 WSC Spotlight – thank you for your interest over the last weeks, all sessions and talks are now available. World Sepsis Congress will return in April 2023.

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Full Release Schedule

• May 3, 2022 – S1: Could Enhanced Pathogen Diagnostics Change Sepsis Management?

• May 10, 2022 – S2: Biomarkers in the Diagnosis and Management of Sepsis and COVID-19

• May 17, 2022 – S3: Panel: Knowledge from COVID-19 to Improve Sepsis Care and Vice Versa

• May 24, 2022 – S4: How to Make the Most of Existing and Frugal Technologies

• May 31, 2022 – S5: Antibiotics and Antivirals – How to Improve Efficacy and Minimize Harm

• June 7, 2022 – S6: Update on Adjunctive Sepsis and COVID-19 Therapies

• June 14, 2022 – S7: Pro-Con: Are Personalized Interventions in Sepsis Even Possible?

• June 21, 2022 – S8: Innovations in Quality Improvement Strategies in All Settings

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