Eliza Watson

VICNISS

The VICNISS Coordinating Centre provides a state-wide, standardised surveillance service for healthcare associated infections (HAIs) and related events. The goal of VICNISS is to monitor and reduce the incidence of HAIs, providing support for health services in Victoria. VICNISS aims to support Victorian health services to carry out international best practice surveillance and analysis, and to lead interventions for quality improvement to improve the health of all Victorians.

VICNISS provides a source of high quality data for regular performance monitoring, and for a valuable resource for the research community. Over the time of VICNISS surveillance, infection rates in key areas of focus have fallen markedly, reducing the significant financial and personal cost of these infections on both individual patients and the health system.

VICNISS collaborates with the National Centre for Antimicrobial Stewardship (NCAS), with a major involvement in aged care NAPS (ac-NAPS). VICNISS is also engaged by DHHS Residential Aged Care Services to carry out monitoring of infection control indicators in Victoria’s public residential aged care services, including participation in ac-NAPS.

Lab Team

• Professor Michael Richards

  Director of VICNISS
• Associate Professor Noleen Bennett

  Senior Infection Control Consultant / Project Officer
• Dr Ann Bull

  Operations Director (VICNISS)
• Jenny Bradford
• Judy Brett

  Senior Infection Control Consultant
• Simon Burrell

  Database Manager
• Chris Clark

  Administration Assistant/Office Manager
• Nabeel Imam

  Biostatician/Epidemiologist
• Sandra Johnson

  Epidemiologist
• Roland Laguitan

  Senior DevOps and BI Developer
• Dr Tim Spelman

  Biostatistician
• Ling Wang

  Software Development
• Associate Professor Leon Worth

  Acting Director of VICNISS
• Eliza Watson

  Project Officer
• Arpita Patel

  Business Intelligence Reporting Developer
• Donna Taylor

  CNC Infection Control
• Katie Walker

  Epidemiologist