“The National Sepsis Data Trust, Research, Outcomes, and Innovation Act” Introduced in the U.S. Senate

Today, a bill with big potential implications for sepsis care in the United States has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. The National Sepsis Data Trust, Research, Outcomes, and Innovation Act was introduced by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. For sepsis survivors, advocates, and loved ones of those lost to sepsis, seeing such an important piece of legislation introduced during Sepsis Awareness Month is particularly meaningful.  

This bill, if signed into law, would authorize state sepsis data collection programs and establish a national sepsis data trust. These changes would give researchers, innovators, clinicians, public health officials, and others fighting sepsis on the frontlines access to critical privacy-protected information about sepsis that they do not currently have, including what kinds of patients get sepsis in the U.S., how sepsis progresses and affects people differently, and what treatments are working best. With this information, experts would be better equipped to fight sepsis and save lives and limbs. You can read more about the bill’s introduction here.

Sepsis Alliance supports this bill and will be tracking its progress very closely. In order for it to become a law, it will need to gain support from additional members of the Senate and a similar bill must be introduced in the House of Representatives. For more about the development of this life-saving piece of legislation, be sure to subscribe to Sepsis Alliance’s advocacy newsletter here.