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Dr. Susan Huang - UC Irvine. Irvine, CA, US

Dr. Susan Huang

Professor and Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention, Department of Medicine, Division of Infection Diseases | UCI Health

Irvine, CA, UNITED STATES

Dr. Huang’s is one of the nation's leading experts on clinical epidemiology of highly antibiotic-resistant organisms.

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Prof. Susan Huang at ICPIC – How to control multi-resistant Coronavirus: The OC Response

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Biography

Dr. Huang’s research focuses on the clinical epidemiology of highly antibiotic-resistant organisms including estimating the risk for infection and assessing practical means for prevention. Dr. Huang’s work involves studying the risks of healthcare-associated transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), including both short and long-term sequelae due to these pathogens within and beyond the hospital stay. Her scope of research also includes an evaluation of inter-facility spread and containment of these pathogens, including the intersection of preventative measures on hospital networks, affiliated nursing homes, and surrounding communities. She has evaluated several strategies to mitigate transmission and disease, including active surveillance and institution of contact precautions, enhanced environmental cleaning, and, most recently, leading several large individual and cluster randomized trials of decolonization to reduce multidrug-resistant organisms and healthcare-associated infections.

Dr. Huang has also built a population laboratory in a large metropolitan county in Southern California (Orange County, CA). She has performed detailed data collection across all hospitals and nursing homes in this county, including extensive details on inter-facility patient sharing, infection control practices, and ICUs, non-ICUs, and nursing homes estimates of pathogen burden in this county. These detailed population data are the foundation for a dynamic transmission model of Orange County facilities and communities built through the NIH Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) collaborative. This model will allow simulation of intervention strategies as well as prediction of future trends in transmission and disease burden for MRSA and other pathogens.
Beyond MRSA, Dr. Huang is broadly interested in the measurement and prevention of healthcare associated infections. She has evaluated more efficient ways to look at relative hospital rankings using administrative data, and has balanced this with rigorous in depth assessments related to accuracy and completeness of reporting. She has specific interests in the use of automated hospital and claims data to assess pathogen clusters and surgical site infections.

Areas of Expertise (5)

MRSA

Pandemics

Epidemiology and Infection Prevention

Infectious Diseases

Antimicrobial Resistance

Accomplishments (5)

Team Award for Outstanding Achievement (professional)

2018 Epidemiology & Infection Prevention, conferred by Chief Nursing Officer, UC Irvine Health

Abstract Award (professional)

2017 “When a Home is Not a Home: MultiDrug-Resistant Organism (MDRO) Colonization and Environmental Contamination in 28 Nursing Homes (NHs),” Older Adults Interest Group, Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)

IDWeek Program Committee Choice Award (professional)

2017 Plenary Presentation. SHEA Featured Oral Abstract, “The CDC SHIELD Orange County Project – Baseline Multi Drug-Resistant Organism (MDRO) Prevalence in a Southern California Region,” IDWeek (6th Annual Joint Meeting of IDSA, SHEA, HIVMA, and PIDS), October 6, 2017 (San Diego, CA).

SOAR Award (professional)

2016 Nosocomial C. difficile Infection Reduction Project, UC Irvine Health

Oswald Avery Award (professional)

2016 Infectious Diseases Society of America (early recognition award for outstanding achievement in an area of infectious diseases by an individual 45 years or younger)

Education (3)

Harvard School of Public Health: MPH, Quantitative Methods 2000

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: MD, Medicine 1997

Brown University: BS, Neuroscience 1992

Affiliations (3)

  • Infectious Diseases Society of America : Fellow
  • Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America : Member
  • American College of Physicians : Fellow

Media Appearances (9)

Leaders in health care

Irvine Standard  online

2024-02-05

The call of neurology led Dr. Susan Huang to become a doctor. Along the way, she came to value the importance of research in infectious diseases. Today, as medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UCI Health, Huang works with patients, is a diligent researcher, and leads protocols to ensure hospitals are safe environments for patients and staff. … While she’s worked with major medical names across the country, Huang says her UC Irvine experience ranks high. When a crisis comes along, “we get what we need faster, and better – always going the extra mile, the extra 40 miles.”

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Meet Orange County’s 125 most influential people for 2023

The Orange County Register  online

2023-12-22

As the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UCI Health, Huang is among the nation’s leading clinicians and researchers in the field of infection prevention and combatting multi-drug resistant organisms. In 2023, the reader-nominated Dr. Huang and colleagues published two landmark studies related to reducing healthcare-associated infections.

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Fungal Infection: Why Cases of Candida Auris Are Increasing

Healthline  online

2023-03-22

[UCI Health] Dr. Susan Huang, [Chancellor’s Professor], the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention [School of Medicine] at UCI … told Healthline that C. auris is “uncontrolled and spreading.” “As a contagious fungus, it has the potential to have broad and grave effects over time, particularly in those who require a lot of healthcare support and frequently take antibiotics,” she said. … Huang added, “the concern is that the spread in healthcare will form a gateway to broader community settings, such as those with complex medical conditions who are recovering at home or need frequent outpatient clinical care.”

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Should You Wait for Omicron-Targeting COVID-19 Booster Shots?

Healthline  online

2022-07-12

Dr. Susan Huang, who specialized in infectious disease at UCI Health in Orange County, California, said the current COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide strong protection against severe disease and hospitalization.

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Omicron's Latest Subvariant, BA.2.12.1, May Present 3 Misleading Early Symptoms

Good Housekeeping  online

2022-05-14

Susan Huang, M.D., the medical director of epidemiology and infection prevention at UCI Health in Orange County, indicates that current data available to healthcare providers suggest this latest Omicron subvariant is highly contagious. "This variant is about 25% more contagious than the original Omicron variant that entered the U.S. last fall — seemingly accounting for about 40% of current cases," she tells Good Housekeeping.

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Mask On or Off? Life Is Getting Back to Normal, and We’re Rusty.

The New York Times  online

2022-04-29

Dr. Susan Huang, [professor and director of epidemiology and infection prevention], of the University of California, Irvine, Medical School, explained the conflicted psychology as a function of rapidly changing risk, and the difference in tolerance individuals have for risk. … “We’re between the darkness and the light,” Dr. Huang said. She likened the psychology around masks and other behavior to the different approaches people take to changing their wardrobes at the end of winter: People who are more risk averse continue to wear winter clothes on 50 degree days, where bigger risk takers opt for shorts. “Eventually,” she said, “everyone will be wearing shorts.”

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Boosters in OC Surpass 1 Million

Orange County Business Journal  online

2022-01-27

According to Huang, booster shots not only help protect people from the virus, but they help prevent and treat “long-haul COVID,” a condition characterized by COVID symptoms lasting 20 weeks after infection.

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Mask On or Off? Life Is Getting Back to Normal, and We’re Rusty.

The New York Times  online

2021-04-29

Dr. Susan Huang, [professor and director of epidemiology and infection prevention], of the University of California, Irvine, Medical School, explained the conflicted psychology as a function of rapidly changing risk, and the difference in tolerance individuals have for risk. … “We’re between the darkness and the light,” Dr. Huang said. She likened the psychology around masks and other behavior to the different approaches people take to changing their wardrobes at the end of winter: People who are more risk averse continue to wear winter clothes on 50 degree days, where bigger risk takers opt for shorts. “Eventually,” she said, “everyone will be wearing shorts.”

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With All Eyes on Covid-19, Drug-Resistant Infections Crept In

The New York Times  online

2021-01-27

“Seeing the world as a one-pathogen world is really problematic,” said Dr. Susan S. Huang, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California at Irvine Medical School, noting that the nearly singular focus on the pandemic appears to have led to more spread of drug-resistant infection. “We have every reason to believe the problem has gotten worse.”

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Articles (4)

The SHIELD Orange County Project: Multidrug-resistant Organism Prevalence in 21 Nursing Homes and Long-term Acute Care Facilities in Southern California

Clinical Infectious Diseases

James A McKinnell, Raveena D Singh, Loren G Miller, Ken Kleinman, Gabrielle Gussin, Jiayi He, Raheeb Saavedra, Tabitha D Dutciuc, Marlene Estevez, Justin Chang, Lauren Heim, Stacey Yamaguchi, Harold Custodio, Shruti K Gohil, Steven Park, Steven Tam, Philip A Robinson, Thomas Tjoa, Jenny Nguyen, Kaye D Evans, Cassiana E Bittencourt, Bruce Y Lee, Leslie E Mueller, Sarah M Bartsch, John A Jernigan, Rachel B Slayton, Nimalie D Stone, Matthew Zahn, Vincent Mor, Kevin McConeghy, Rosa R Baier, Lynn Janssen, Kathleen O’Donnell, Robert A Weinstein, Mary K Hayden, Micaela H Coady, Megha Bhattarai, Ellena M Peterson, Susan S Huang for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Safety and Healthcare Epidemiology Prevention Research Development (SHEPheRD) Program

2019 Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) spread between hospitals, nursing homes (NHs), and long-term acute care facilities (LTACs) via patient transfers. The Shared Healthcare Intervention to Eliminate Life-threatening Dissemination of MDROs in Orange County is a regional public health collaborative involving decolonization at 38 healthcare facilities selected based on their high degree of patient sharing. We report baseline MDRO prevalence in 21 NHs/LTACs.

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Chlorhexidine versus routine bathing to prevent multidrug-resistant organisms and all-cause bloodstream infections in general medical and surgical units (ABATE Infection trial)

The Lancet

Huang SS, Septimus E, Kleinman K, Moody J, Hickok J, Heim L, Gombosev A, Avery TR, Haffenreffer K, Shimelman L, Hayden MK, Weinstein RA, Spencer-Smith C, Kaganov RE, Murphy MV, Forehand T, Lankiewicz J, Coady MH, Portillo L, Sarup-Patel J, Jernigan JA, Perlin JB, Platt R.

2019 Universal skin and nasal decolonisation reduces multidrug-resistant pathogens and bloodstream infections in intensive care units. The effect of universal decolonisation on pathogens and infections in non-critical-care units is unknown. The aim of the ABATE Infection trial was to evaluate the use of chlorhexidine bathing in non-critical-care units, with an intervention similar to one that was found to reduce multidrug-resistant organisms and bacteraemia in intensive care units.

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Decolonization to Reduce Postdischarge Infection Risk among MRSA Carriers

The New England Journal of Medicine

Susan S. Huang, M.D., M.P.H, Raveena Singh, M.A., James A. McKinnell, M.D., Steven Park, M.D., Ph.D., Adrijana Gombosev, M.S., Samantha J. Eells, M.P.H., Daniel L. Gillen, Ph.D., Diane Kim, B.S., Syma Rashid, M.D., Raul Macias-Gil, M.D., Michael A. Bolaris, M.D., Thomas Tjoa, M.P.H., M.S., Chenghua Cao, M.P.H., Suzie S. Hong, M.S., Jennifer Lequieu, B.S., Eric Cui, B.S., Justin Chang, B.S., Jiayi He, M.S., Kaye Evans, B.A., Ellena Peterson, Ph.D., Gail Simpson, M.D., Philip Robinson, M.D., Chester Choi, M.D., Charles C. Bailey, Jr., M.D., James D. Leo, M.D., Alpesh Amin, M.D., Donald Goldmann, M.D., John A. Jernigan, M.D., Richard Platt, M.D., Edward Septimus, M.D., Robert A. Weinstein, M.D., Mary K. Hayden, M.D., and Loren G. Miller, M.D., M.P.H. for the Project CLEAR Trial

2019 Hospitalized patients who are colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are at high risk for infection after discharge.

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Effectiveness of a multistate quality improvement campaign in reducing risk of surgical site infections following hip and knee arthroplasty

BMJ Quality & Safety

Calderwood MS, Yokoe DS, Murphy MV, DeBartolo KO, Duncan K, Chan CA, Schneider EC, Parry G, Goldmann D, Huang SS

2018 Quality improvement (QI) campaigns appear to increase use of evidence-based practices, but their effect on health outcomes is less well studied.

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