Sepsis Australia is a collaborative of individuals and organisations who are working to improve outcomes for patients with sepsis and to provide information and support to the families and friends of people with sepsis.
The Australian Sepsis Network is at the heart of Sepsis Australia because without collaboration, cooperation and co-design we will achieve very little. Especially as it is our collaborating partners in states and territories, professional organisations, clinical champions and our invaluable consumer advocates that provide us with leadership and examples of best practice that we strive to leverage, emulate and propagate, that is key to success. As such Sepsis Australia is not designed to duplicate the efforts of its collaborating organisations but rather to provide an avenue through which members can collaborate to better disseminate information about sepsis to healthcare workers and the general community.
Why Sepsis Australia? The Australian Sepsis Network has grown organisationally and functionally to incorporate program streams of work on:
- Awareness and prevention
- Consumer advocacy and leadership
- Education
- Clinical care and health policy
- Research
- Post sepsis support
The ASN remains the core foundation for Sepsis Australia and will continue into the future enabling us to effectively engage, support and empower our partners towards reducing the burden of sepsis in Australia.
Why is the network necessary
Sepsis is a condition that is responsible for or contributes to up to half of all deaths occurring in hospital. Its estimated that there are 55,000 cases of sepsis resulting in least 8700 deaths in Australia each year, yet few people have heard of sepsis.
Sepsis already causes a significant but unappreciated burden of disease but as the population ages, this burden will increase substantially.
Unlike conditions such as heart disease or breast or prostate cancer, sepsis affects people of all ages and patients cared for by almost all hospital doctors. As a result there has, until now, been no group specifically dedicated to reducing the burden of sepsis.
Managing the Network
Sepsis Australia is hosted by The George Institute for Global Health. The George Institute provides the necessary infrastructure and operational in kind support.
Key roles include:
- Professor Simon Finfer, Director
- A/Prof Naomi Hammond, Critical Care Program Lead
- Dr Brett Abbenbroek, Program Manager
- Dr Ashwani Kumar, Research Associate
