Lloyd Everett, a Somerset College Cambridge computer programming student, was acknowledged by Investec for the extraordinary work he has done at Tygerberg Hospital/Stellenbosch University’s Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Everett received the Investec Out-of-the-Ordinary Award for his groundbreaking work to support newborn care at Tygerberg Hospital at the school’s recent annual awards evening.
The student, who takes Computer Science as one of his three Cambridge A-level subjects, helped set up an electronic surveillance system for neonatal bloodstream infections.
Professor Adrie Bekker, a neonatologist at Stellenbosch University, says: “Approximately half of all babies born at Tygerberg Hospital are born prematurely or are of low birth weight, with sepsis being a major cause of suffering and death at Tygerberg and in neonates globally. Early identification of neonatal infection events and outbreaks is essential to improve patient outcomes and prevent infection transmission.
“Currently, outbreaks or infection clusters in public hospitals are identified manually by sifting through large electronic laboratory data sets.”
Hence the need for improved data analysis was recognised to ensure faster and less labour-intensive detection of outbreaks.
Everett designed several MSExcel plug-ins that will automate the current seven-step manual analysis method and save time for nurses. He also wrote code to identify infection clusters and alert the infection prevention team of a possible outbreak.
Bekker and Dr Angela Dramowski, who worked with Everett on the project, said: “The product Lloyd designed will revolutionise the way we conduct neonatal infection surveillance, identify outbreaks more rapidly and potentially save newborn lives by allowing us to implement infection prevention measures more quickly.”
