The health system is the first in the Southeast to adopt the 15-minute MeMed BV test into its live emergency workflow after research demonstrated reduced hospitalizations and antibiotic exposure.
Tampa General Hospital has become the first academic health system in the Southeast to adopt MeMed BV, an FDA-cleared host-response diagnostic test designed to help clinicians distinguish between bacterial and viral infections in approximately 15 minutes.
The diagnostic platform has been integrated directly into the health system’s electronic health record-based emergency department sepsis alert workflow to support decisions regarding hospitalization and antibiotic therapy.
The clinical rollout follows research led by Tampa General Hospital and USF Health physicians evaluating 893 adult emergency department patients between September 2024 and October 2025. According to the health system, the study was the largest sepsis study to date utilizing host immune-response technology.
Study findings presented at national scientific meetings demonstrated that incorporating the test into the sepsis alert protocol reclassified 26% more patients as unlikely to have sepsis. In patients with an active sepsis alert, exposure to the antibiotic cefepime decreased by 33%, while hospitalizations dropped by 13%. Additionally, a preliminary cost-benefit analysis showed estimated savings of approximately $179,000 per 100 patients driven by decreased admissions and reduced length of stay.
“Sepsis requires us to move quickly, but speed alone isn’t enough. Our teams also need the most precise information possible to make the right decision for each patient,” says Michele Moran, MBA, MSN, RN, senior vice president of the emergency services institute at Tampa General Hospital, in a release. “We have made a sustained commitment to improving how we identify and respond to sepsis, and by bringing emerging, evidence-based technology directly into the workflow our clinicians already use, we can give them more information sooner and continue to advance the quality of care we provide.”
Host Immune Profiling at the Point of Need
According to the release, the platform runs on MeMed Key, a compact point-of-need analyzer that processes a small blood sample. Unlike standard microbiological assays that identify specific pathogens, the test analyzes the host’s immune response by measuring three proteins: TRAIL, IP-10, and CRP.
A validated algorithm combines these measurements into a score indicating the likelihood of a bacterial versus viral infection, providing clinical laboratories and emergency teams with an objective tool to aid antimicrobial stewardship and patient triage.
“Sepsis is a clinical emergency, but one of the challenges we face is that its early signs can overlap with many other conditions. At the point of a sepsis alert, we need to determine quickly whether we are dealing with a bacterial infection that requires multiple doses of intravenous antibiotics and hospitalization or whether another explanation is more likely,” says Jason Wilson, MD, PhD, FACEP, chair of USF emergency medicine and chief of emergency medicine, in a release. “Our research evaluated whether host-response testing could provide meaningful information at precisely that decision point. The results gave us the evidence to take the next step—moving this technology from research into our live clinical workflow. That translation of research into practice is fundamental to the role of an academic health system.”
Translating Sepsis Research into Routine Practice
The institution previously presented its clinical trial findings at both the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting in May 2026 and the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine meeting in July 2026, according to the hospital.
The implementation addresses a major clinical challenge in the US, where approximately 1.7 million adults develop sepsis annually and at least 350,000 die during hospitalization or are discharged to hospice, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited in the release.
Hospital officials noted that the host-response platform complements Tampa General Hospital’s existing Sepsis Hub, a centralized coordination tool developed with Palantir Technologies that aggregates real-time electronic health data to detect at-risk patients and facilitate early intervention.
“Tampa General represents exactly what we envisioned for host-response technology: giving clinicians fast, clear information from the patient’s own immune response at a moment when that information can make a meaningful difference,” says Eran Eden, PhD, co-founder and CEO of MeMed, in a release. “What makes this collaboration particularly significant is Tampa General’s commitment not only to adopting innovation, but to rigorously studying it in real-world care and generating evidence that can help inform the broader clinical community. Together, we are working to advance more precise decision-making around infection and antibiotic use.”
Photo caption: MeMed BV provides results in 15 minutes to help clinicians distinguish bacterial from viral infections, building on Tampa General’s nationally recognized efforts to improve the early detection and treatment of sepsis.
Photo credit: Tampa General Hospital
