The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a free tool intended to shorten the time between when a hospital infection outbreak begins and when anyone recognizes it as an outbreak.
The tool, called CaseTrace, runs in a web browser and requires no software installation. An epidemiologist or infection preventionist uploads an anonymized patient line list using a provided template, and the tool generates interactive timelines showing where patients were, when, and where their stays overlapped. Details are posted on the CDC's tool page, along with a user manual and the line list template.
