Combating Resistance: Getting Smart About Antibiotics
Presented on .
Antibiotics are the most important tool we have to combat life-threatening bacterial diseases, but antibiotic use, especially when not needed, has unintended consequences. Antibiotic resistance is becoming an increasingly common problem, resulting in over 2 million illnesses and 23,000 deaths each year and costing $30 billion in the United States annually.
This session of Grand Rounds will explore how improved prescribing practices and policies can not only help reduce rates of antibiotic resistance, but also improve individual patient outcomes. The session will also provide insight into interventions, such as patient and provider education and clinical decision support, which are key in reaching the goal of reducing unnecessary antibiotic use.
In this Beyond the Data, Dr. John Iskander and Dr. Lauri Hicks discuss the problem of excessive and inappropriate antibiotic use and explore the actions providers, patients and public health professionals can take to promote better antibiotic use.
Providers must ask themselves:
- Does this patient have a bacterial infection?
- What are the harms vs. benefits?
- Is this the right medication, at the right dose, for the right duration?
Parents and patients need to:
- Know that antibiotics do not treat viruses
- Ask what the best treatment is – sometimes no medicine is the best medicine
Public health professionals should:
- Continuously engage state and local health department partners to get the message out
- CDR Lauri Hicks, DO
- Medical Director, Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work,
Division of Bacterial Diseases
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
- Jonathan Finkelstein, MD, MPH
- Vice Chair for Quality and Outcomes,
Department of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Population Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School
- CAPT Arjun Srinivasan, MD
- Associate Director, Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Programs, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC
- Shari Ling, MD
- Deputy Chief Medical Officer
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Tanja Popovic, MD, PhD
- Scientific Director
- John Iskander, MD, MPH
- Deputy Scientific Director
- Susan Laird, MSN, RN
- Communications Director
Get notified about the latest updates from Public Health Grand Rounds right in your inbox by setting up an alert today!
Get notified about the latest updates from Public Health Grand Rounds right in your inbox by setting up an alert today!Sign Up
Get notified about the latest updates from Public Health Grand Rounds right in your inbox by setting up an alert today!
