Antibiotic resistance is a major global threat. It is a complex problem that affects all of society, is driven by many interconnected factors and requires cross-national initiatives. The Joint Programming Initiatives on Antimicrobial Resistance, JPIAMR, funds international working groups to create collaboration across countries to maximise efforts to combat antibiotic resistance.
Led by researchers at the Health Services Research Unit in Aberdeen, world experts in antibiotic stewardship, implementation science and behaviour change interventions from the UK, Canada, Norway and Germany are coming together in Aberdeen for their second 2-day JPIAMR working group meeting on the 30th and 31st of October 2017. The aim of the working group is to apply a behavioural approach to explore how antibiotic stewardship in hospitals can be optimised.
Antibiotic stewardship refers to coordinated interventions designed to improve and measure the appropriate use of antibiotics by promoting the selection of the best drug regimen including dosing, duration of therapy and route of administration. There is robust evidence to show that a variety of behavioural interventions are effective in reducing unnecessary antibiotic treatment safely, without increase in mortality. However, countries worldwide are not using all of this known information in their stewardship programmes. The JPIAMR working group will be prioritising approaches that should be used to enhance the effects of worldwide antibiotic stewardship programmes.
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