Antimicrobial Stewardship: Rational Decision Making for Antibiotic Usage in General Practice

Antimicrobial resistance is a major threat to human and animal health. Veterinarians rely on antimicrobials every single day to treat our patients, but as multidrug-resistant organisms become an increasing scourge in our day to day practice, how can we best manage this problem for the benefit of our patients and the wider world? 

On this one day course we will cover all the basics of antimicrobial stewardship principles, and how many of these can actually be easily and effectively implemented in your daily practice - you will leave with a toolkit you can start implementing tomorrow. We will discuss the latest consensus recommendations from ISCAID (the International Society for Companion Animal Infectious Diseases) on how to rationally approach antimicrobial prescribing, and work through a variety of different body systems and examples. 

Topics to be covered include: 

• The basic principles of antimicrobial stewardship and how to set up a practical plan for action in your clinic
• Overview of culture & sensitivity methods, including MICs, plus an introduction to MALDI-TOF and how it can benefit your patients in practice 
• Rational empiric antimicrobial prescribing when your culture/sensitivity results are pending
• How to de-escalate antimicrobial therapy when appropriate
• Approach to the nightmare MDR infection - what can I prescribe?
• Asymptomatic bacteriuria versus bacterial cystitis 
• New thoughts on how long to administer antimicrobials for