Mathematical models of infection transmission in healthcare settings: recent advances from the use of network
structured data
Rania Assab MS1,2*, Narimane Nekkab MPH1,2,3*, Pascal Crépey PhD3,4,5, Pascal Astagneau MD6, Didier Guillemot MD7,8,9,10, Lulla
Opatowski PhD7,8,9, Laura Temime PhD1,2
RA and NN contributed equally to this article.
* Corresponding authors
Supplementary Figure 1. Proportion of mathematical models of HAI spread in healthcare settings that include real network data
published over time
Suppl Fig 1. The proportion of the total number of published models represented by those using real contact data (L1, in green), those using real
transfer data (L2, in purple), and those focusing on the impact of social networks without real data (L3, in blue) is depicted for four time periods:
2001-04, 2005-08, 2009-12, and 2013-16.
Supplementary Figure 2. Country of study of the models using real contact (L1) or transfer data (L2)
Suppl Fig 2. The number of articles for each country of study over the total number of L1 and L2 articles.
APPENDIX 1
Query structure
In MEDLINE, we specified search terms in either title and abstract (Title/Abstract) or Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). We incorporated
Boolean operators such as “AND” to combine the four main search term groups, “OR” within groups search terms, and “NOT” to exclude search
terms.
The search query was structured into four groups as follows:

Search terms associated to mathematical models and computation
(model* OR “mathematical model” etc.)
AND

Search terms associated to transmission, dynamics
(propagate OR transmission OR coloniz* etc.)
AND

Search terms involving healthcare settings
(hospital* OR ward OR “long-term-care” etc.)
AND

Search terms involving nosocomial, viral or bacterial infections
(nosocomial* OR “hospital acquired” OR MRSA etc.)
The full query is provided in Appendix 2.
Inclusion criteria
For the purpose of this review, we initially considered all mathematical models of nosocomial spread in healthcare settings. We considered only
original articles written in English or French. Eligible studies had also to meet the following criteria:
1. Mathematical/mechanistic pathogen(s) transmission models (compartmental models, individual-based models, network-structured
coupled with transmission models etc.)
2. Focused in a healthcare setting(s) (hospital(s), hospital unit(s) or ward(s), nursing/retirement home(s) or long-term care facility(ies))
In the second phase of the review, we focused our analyses on models incorporating real data on contacts between patients and/or healthcare
workers or on inter-/intra-healthcare facility patient transfers.
Exclusion criteria
The studies excluded from our selection were statistical models, epidemiologic studies, and models not involving inter individual pathogen
transmission. To increase specificity, we excluded terms related to sexually transmitted diseases, molecular models, and neural models among
other excluded search terms found in Appendix 2.
APPENDIX 2
MEDLINE Search Query
(model*[Title/Abstract] OR "mathematical model"[MeSH Terms] OR mathematic*[MeSH Terms] OR models[Title/Abstract] OR "models,
theoretical"[MeSH Terms] OR "models, biological"[MeSH Terms] OR modeled[Title/Abstract] OR modelled[Title/Abstract] OR
stochastic*[Title/Abstract] OR "stochastic processes"[MeSH Terms] OR deterministic[Title/Abstract] OR "individual-based"[Title/Abstract] OR
prediction[Title/Abstract] OR simulat*[Title/Abstract] OR "computer-generated"[Title/Abstract] OR "computer simulation"[MeSH Terms] OR
computer[Title/Abstract] OR computational[Title/Abstract] OR mathematical*[Title/Abstract] OR modeling[Title/Abstract] OR
modelling[Title/Abstract] OR predict*[Title/Abstract] OR “agent-based”[Title/Abstract])
AND
(dynamic[Title/Abstract] OR dynamics[Title/Abstract] OR dissemination[Title/Abstract] OR disseminate[Title/Abstract] OR
disseminates[Title/Abstract] OR disseminated[Title/Abstract] OR propagation[Title/Abstract] OR propagations[Title/Abstract] OR
propagate[Title/Abstract] OR propagates[Title/Abstract] OR propagating[Title/Abstract] OR propagated[Title/Abstract] OR
propagative[Title/Abstract] OR transmission[Title/Abstract] OR transmitting[Title/Abstract] OR transmitted[Title/Abstract] OR
transmisibility[Title/Abstract] OR “cross infection/transmission”[MeSHTerms] OR spread*[Title/Abstract] OR diffus*[Title/Abstract] OR
circulati*[Title/Abstract] OR coloniz*[Title/Abstract] OR colonis*[Title/Abstract] OR superspread*[Title/Abstract])
AND
(hospital*[Title/Abstract] OR healthcare[Title/Abstract] OR "health care"[Title/Abstract] OR "health-care"[Title/ Abstract] OR
ward[Title/Abstract] OR wards[Title/Abstract] OR unit[Title/Abstract] OR units[Title/Abstract] OR facility[Title/Abstract] OR
facilities[Title/Abstract] OR "long-term care"[Title/Abstract] OR "long term care"[Title/Abstract] OR "nursing homes"[Title/Abstract] OR
"nursing home"[Title/Abstract] OR "retirement"[Title/Abstract] OR center[Title/Abstract] OR centers[Title/Abstract])
AND
(nosocomial*[Title/Abstract]
OR
infect*[Title/Abstract]
OR
outbreak*[Title/Abstract]
OR
epidemic[Title/Abstract]
OR
epidemics[Title/Abstract] OR pathogen[Title/Abstract] OR pathogens[Title/Abstract] OR carriage[Title/Abstract] OR “hospitalacquired”[Title/Abstract] OR “hospital acquired”[Title/Abstract] OR “hospital-associated”[Title/Abstract] OR MRSA[Title/Abstract] OR
aureus[Title/Abstract] OR influenza[Title/Abstract] OR VRE[Title/Abstract] OR CRE[Title/Abstract] OR “Clostridium difficile”[Title/Abstract]
OR “Acinetobacter baumanii”[Title/Abstract])
NOT
(neur*[Title/Abstract] OR metabo*[Title/Abstract] OR *cell*[Title/Abstract] OR plant*[Title/Abstract] OR proteomic*[Title/Abstract] OR
protein*[Title/Abstract] OR intracellular*[Title/Abstract] OR hemato*[Title/Abstract] OR obesity[Title/Abstract] OR obes*[Title/Abstract] OR
cancer[Title/Abstract] OR diabet*[Title/Abstract] OR plasmi*[Title/Abstract] OR workshop[Title/Abstract] OR socio*[Title/Abstract] OR
ecolog*[Title/Abstract] OR immuno*[Title/Abstract] OR "feasibility study"[Title/Abstract] OR pilot study*[Title/Abstract] OR
zoo*[Title/Abstract] OR crop*[Title/Abstract] OR agricultur*[Title/Abstract] OR PCR*[Title/Abstract] OR DNA*[Title/Abstract] OR
transcript*[Title/Abstract] OR temperature*[Title/Abstract] OR pollut*[Title/Abstract] OR cardio*[Title/Abstract] OR biofilm*[Title/Abstract]
OR "meta-analys"[Title/Abstract] OR blood*[Title/Abstract] OR chemist*[Title/Abstract] OR antig*[Title/Abstract] OR fung*[Title/Abstract]
OR pharmaco*[Title/Abstract] OR tissue*[Title/Abstract] OR classification*[Title/Abstract] OR sex*[Title/Abstract] OR
digestion*[Title/Abstract] OR survey*[Title/Abstract])