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Enhancing the Utility of Antibiotic Susceptibility Reporting as a Tool for Antimicrobial Stewardship

  • Antimicrobial Stewardship (AL Pakyz, Section editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Infectious Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion Statement

Hospital antibiograms are a method for presenting cumulative antibiotic susceptibility data using routinely collected clinical microbiology data. They provide critical foundational knowledge to inform development of antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) strategies but are also provided to clinicians to inform empiric antibiotic therapy selection. Earlier research has demonstrated that use of the antibiogram to direct prudent antibiotic selection is less than desired. Use by non-infectious disease practitioners has been limited, and antibiotic prescribing has not aligned with ASP goals. Over the past 5 years, newer research has emerged to increase the utility of the antibiogram through education, stratification, and cross-tabulation of data for combination therapy. These approaches focus on increasing use of the cumulative antibiogram and ensuring that the data appropriately influence the antibiotic therapy selection. Data available to date suggest that these strategies can be effective methods of increasing use of concordant and relatively narrow spectrum empiric antibiotic regimens.

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References and Recommended Reading

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance •• Of major importance

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University/Oregon Health & Science University, 2730 SW Moody Ave., CL5CP, Portland, OR, 97201, USA

    Jessina C. McGregor Ph.D.

  2. Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, 410 North 12th Street, Box 980533, Richmond, VA, 23298, USA

    Amy L. Pakyz PharmD, M.S., Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Jessina C. McGregor Ph.D.
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  2. Amy L. Pakyz PharmD, M.S., Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy L. Pakyz PharmD, M.S., Ph.D..

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Conflict of Interest

Dr. Jessina C. McGregor reports grants from AHRQ, grants from Merck, grants from PCORI, and grants from CDC, outside the submitted work. Dr. Amy Pakyz declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Antimicrobial Stewardship

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McGregor, J.C., Pakyz, A.L. Enhancing the Utility of Antibiotic Susceptibility Reporting as a Tool for Antimicrobial Stewardship. Curr Treat Options Infect Dis 9, 80–91 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-017-0108-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40506-017-0108-x

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