University of Virginia Health System

Dr. Jagger is an epidemiologist specializing in injury prevention and control. Over the last 20 years, she has been devoted to reducing healthcare workers' risks from occupational exposures to bloodborne pathogens. In 1988, Dr. Jagger and colleagues published a landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine which detailed the characteristics of medical devices causing needlestick injuries, and criteria for protective needle designs. That pioneering research provided the foundation for the development of a new generation of safer medical devices.

In 1991, Dr. Jagger developed the EPINet surveillance system to provide healthcare facilities with a standardized system for tracking needlestick injuries and blood and body fluid exposures; it is now used by over 1,500 healthcare facilities in the U.S., and many others in countries around the world. The dissemination of EPINet resulted in a massive increase in data on the causes of needlesticks and blood exposures.

Dr. Jagger established a voluntary data-sharing network of U.S. healthcare facilities using EPINet—the "EPINet network"—in 1992. With almost 15 years of data from a cumulative total of 84 hospitals, it is the largest continuous database of healthcare workers' at-risk exposures to blood and body fluids in the U.S.

Dr. Jagger founded the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia in 1994 to help propagate the findings from the EPINet network and to accelerate the transition to safety-engineered needles and sharp devices. Data from the EPINet network are the foundation of the Center's research and advocacy, providing important support for new policies to improve healthcare worker safety. In 2002, Dr. Jagger was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in recognition of her groundbreaking work.