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Professor
University of Iowa
Disclosure(s): 3M: • 3M is providing products for one of Dr. Herwaldt’s research studies unrelated to the work reported here.; PDI Healthcare: PDI Healthcare has provided research funding to Dr. Herwaldt unrelated to the work reported in this abstract.
Dr. Herwaldt is a professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and a Professor of Epidemiology in the University of Iowa College of Public Health. She served as the hospital epidemiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics for > 20 years. She currently does infectious diseases consults and continues to do research on healthcare-associated infections. She has investigated clusters of infections and she has studied the epidemiology of several organisms that cause healthcare-associated infections, including staphylococci and Legionella. Her recent work has addressed risk factors for and prevention of surgical site infections (SSI) and healthcare workers’ risk of self-contamination while removing personal protective equipment. She currently is the principal investigator (PI) for the University of Iowa’s CDC Prevention Epicenter grant and she is the project PI for 2 of the 7 projects. One of these studies is the POTENT randomized stepped-wedge multicenter trial of intranasal povidone iodine for preventing SSI after orthopedic procedures for lower extremity fractures. She was recently awarded a CDC Strengthening Healthcare Infection Prevention and Control and Improving Patient Safety in the United States Cooperative Agreemant. During 1999-2000, she took developmental leave to study narratives of illness and interview authors to learn about their experiences of getting healthcare for illnesses, injuries, and disabilities. In 2008, the University of Iowa Press published her book Patient Listening: A Doctor’s Guide, which grew out of the interviews she conducted with the authors. In 2012, she received the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s mentor scholar award. In 2016, she received the University of Iowa Graduate College’s Outstanding Faculty Postdoctoral Mentor Award and in 2022 she received the University of Iowa’s May Brodbeck Distinguished Achievement for Faculty Award.