ABOUT AMS
How to improve antibiotic use: a practical introduction to the development and implementation of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs.
The project
On the 1st of November 2022, the new drive-AMS project was launched by Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) and University of Antwerp. This new project, funded under the EU4Health Programme, will run for 3 years and is being implemented in four European countries. The partners in the four participating countries are the Institute of Hygiene from Lithuania, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki from Greece, the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy from Romania, and the University Hospital Centre of São João from Portugal.
Background
In 2014, the Global Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance (Global-PPS), was developed by the Laboratory of Medical Microbiology of the University of Antwerp, to provide a standardised, feasible and freely available web-based surveillance tool for measuring the quantity and quality of antimicrobial prescribing practice in hospitals worldwide.
In 2018, Radboudumc developed the Dutch Antimicrobial Stewardship, Masterclass & Expert consultancy programme, providing guidance for professionals and policy makers through the process of developing and implementing a successful Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in healthcare facilities. These two programmes are now working together in the drive-AMS project. It combines three key elements: knowledge transfer, measurement, and expert consultation.
Program
The combined education/implementation program consists of a pre-course, a 4-day course and a post-course expert consultancy support for implementation of your project developed during the course.
Depending on availability of data for your hospital, the program can be expanded with pre-course (baseline) and post-course (follow-up) measurement of antibiotic use.
Benefits
- to understand the problems of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) across global, national and local levels;
- to understand and be able to describe the core elements of antimicrobial stewardship;
- to understand how to develop local/national guidelines for appropriate antibiotic use, based on international guidelines and local/national resistance levels;
- to be aware of the main barriers to the development of an Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, and to be able to apply improvement strategies to address these;
- to be able to convey the knowledge and skills needed for Antimicrobial Stewardship to both clinical and management teams in hospitals;
- to have decided next steps to take to improve antibiotic use/implement antibiotic stewardship in my health care setting/country.