Cellulitis Preferred Product Characteristics (PPC) and Targeted Product Profile (TPP)

Our vision is to improve the diagnosis, management and health outcomes of people affected by cellulitis. To achieve this, we aim to:

1. Stimulate health tech innovation for cellulitis diagnostics and monitoring through multistakeholder partnerships across academia, industry and civil society.
2. Evaluate the clinical effectiveness and cost efficiency of existing and emerging health tech for cellulitis.

We will deliver PPCs and TPPs, strategic documents outlining characteristics of ideal health technology, for specific use cases and modalities, informed by clinicians across the cellulitis care pathway and regular feedback from patients and carers with lived experience. Our pipeline includes the development of clinical trials based in the community.

Unmet Need

Cellulitis is a very common bacterial skin infection and over 90% of patients present to primary care. However, lack of a diagnostic gold standard contributes to a high misdiagnosis rate, protracting the patient journey with multiple presentations across community care. Lack of reliable biomarkers for monitoring recovery from infection has led to high variation in antibiotic prescribing practices. Recurrence is common and this risk increases with subsequent episodes of cellulitis. Predicting who is affected by recurrence remains a challenge and there are limited non-antibiotic strategies for successfully managing recurrence. 

Contact: cellulitis@phc.ox.ac.uk

Lead Investigator: Gail Hayward

Research Group: Infection Theme