How Microbiology Labs Can Drive Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes
This review details the expanding role of clinical microbiology laboratories in antimicrobial stewardship, from cumulative susceptibility reporting and enhanced culture results to rapid diagnostic test deployment and provider education. The authors demonstrate how the rapid evolution of clinical microbiology, including molecular diagnostics and automated susceptibility testing, has reinforced the microbiologist's central position in stewardship teams. Practical guidance is offered on alert systems, surveillance, and pre-analytic phase optimisation.
The original study
Antimicrobial Stewardship: How the Microbiology Laboratory Can Right the Ship.
- Authors
- Morency-Potvin P, Schwartz DN, Weinstein RA
- Journal
- Clinical microbiology reviews
- Type
- Journal Article, Review
- PMID
- 27974411
Original abstract
Antimicrobial stewardship is a bundle of integrated interventions employed to optimize the use of antimicrobials in health care settings. While infectious-disease-trained physicians, with clinical pharmacists, are considered the main leaders of antimicrobial stewardship programs, clinical microbiologists can play a key role in these programs. This review is intended to provide a comprehensive discussion of the different components of antimicrobial stewardship in which microbiology laboratories and clinical microbiologists can make significant contributions, including cumulative antimicrobial susceptibility reports, enhanced culture and susceptibility reports, guidance in the preanalytic phase, rapid diagnostic test availability, provider education, and alert and surveillance systems. In reviewing this material, we emphasize how the rapid, and especially the recent, evolution of clinical microbiology has reinforced the importance of clinical microbiologists' collaboration with antimicrobial stewardship programs.