By the bioMérieux Connection Editors
Nearly 5,000 specialists in epidemiology and infection prevention and control are meeting from June 12 – 14 in Philadelphia for the 46th Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the largest gathering of infection prevention specialists in the world. This group of nurses, doctors, administrators, statisticians and academics—who play a vital role in the battle against antimicrobial resistance (AMR)—will be discussing the importance of stewardship and the role of diagnostics in curtailing AMR infections.
Infectious Diseases Clinical Pharmacist David Ezdon and Microbiologist Janet Cahill MT/M(ASCP), of the Einstein Medical Center in East Norriton, PA, are presenting very promising data on the use of rapid molecular diagnostics to curtail the overuse of antibiotics.
Their study, titled “Integrating Rapid Diagnostics and Antimicrobial Stewardship for Blood Cultures Improves Antibiotic Use in a Community Hospital,” generated very positive results in just 4 months.
APIC 2019 includes dozens of educational sessions, oral abstracts, workshops, and exhibitor events that demonstrate new approaches and best practices for curtailing antibiotic overuse in order to contain the spread of resistant organisms. Below are some highlights:
- Leading an Antibiotic Stewardship Initiative Through a Quality Improvement Collaborative Among 22 Hospitals in a Lower Middle Income Country
- Diagnostic Stewardship: Addressing the Knowledge Gaps Associated with Urine and Blood Culturing Practices
- Sepsis: Systemic Immune Assault in the Waning Years of Antibiotic Effectiveness
- Wisconsin’s Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship: Advancing from 12 to 100% in 12 Months
- Antibiotic Stewardship Programs with Limited Resources
- Antibiotic Stewardship for Nurses; It’s Not Just Another Webinar
- Leveraging Technology to Increase Public Awareness of the Importance of Antimicrobial Stewardship
- A Rural Health Approach for Engagement in Antimicrobial Stewardship and Multidrug Resistant Organism Tracking
- MDROs in Post-acute and Long-term Care Settings: Emerging Trends and Prevention Strategies
- CRE Collaborative: A Regional Approach to Prevention
- Education and Consistent Infection Prevention Practices Prevail: An Outbreak of CRE in a Long Term Acute Care Hospital
To learn more about these sessions and others at the conference, visit the APIC 2019 website. For information about APIC’s policy on resistant organisms, stewardship and the association’s goal to eliminate healthcare-associated infections, visit this site.
Opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of bioMérieux, Inc.
