Dr. Perencevich is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine with appointments in the Divisions of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, as well as a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology in the University of Iowa, College of Public Health. Perencevich is currently Director of CADRE (Center for Comprehensive Access & Delivery Research and Evaluation) at the Iowa City VA Health Care System, which is funded by the VA HSR&D service.

Our research group is comprised of a methodologically diverse team of faculty, fellow and student investigators with backgrounds in infectious disease clinical practice, hospital epidemiology, epidemiology, medical anthropology, health psychology, spatial analysis, informatics and biostatistics.

Research in the group focuses on preventing and treating infections in the healthcare environment. Our ultimate goal is to make hospital stays safer and free of infection. Major focuses areas for our research include:

• Developing methods to improve surveillance of hand hygiene compliance and testing novel interventions to improve compliance
• Developing and testing bundles of care to prevent surgical site infections
• Determining the comparative effectiveness of therapeutic options for multidrug resistant bacterial infections including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE)
• Understanding the environmental and geographic factors that increase the risk of MRSA and CRE infections
• Understanding the barriers and facilitators to adoption and implementation of infection prevention interventions
• Developing and testing innovative approaches for delivering comprehensive care for persons with HIV infection