Essential Elements of Antimicrobial Stewardships Proposed

New study identifies essential elements of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) that could be applicable to hospitals in both high-income and low-income countries. ASPs in hospitals play a vital role in managing the threat of antibiotic resistance. To be of maximum effectiveness, essential elements of ASP programs need to be identified and standardized. While previous efforts in identifying the key components of ASPs have been confined to high-income countries, this study also targets low-income countries. The study is published in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection.

Researchers from Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP) and the Université de Lorraine in France conducted the study with the help of 15 experts from 13 countries in six continents. Through a consensus process, seven core elements that included 29 checklist items were identified. The seven core elements--leadership commitment, accountability, drug expertise, action, tracking, reporting, and education--are relevant across resource-rich and resource-limited settings. The researchers concluded that the next step should be to evaluate these core elements in a range of geographic and resource settings with broader stakeholder groups.