Dr. Safdar is the Associate Chief of Staff at the Madison VA-Research Office, the Vice-Chair for research at the Dept. of Medicine, University of Wisconsin and a staff infectious diseases physician.  Dr. Safdar's research focuses on healthcare-associated infections particularly in the acute care setting. She is interested in examining the efficacy of novel interventions to reduce healthcare-associated infection such as the use of probiotics for reducing colonization by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile and has ongoing trials in this area. She has received research funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the University of Wisconsin Partnership for the Future Program, the Wisconsin Womens Health Foundation, the John A Hartford Foundation, and as a scholar from the National Institute on Aging {K-12- PI: Carnes}.  .She is the Principal Investigator of a Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) Partnered Evaluation Initiative, Building Implementation Science for VA- Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Network (VHIN). Safdar is also the director of a recently-awarded VA National Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, Human-factors Engineering to Prevent Resistant Organisms (HERO). She is a recipient of the 2016 President’s early career award for scientists and engineers.