Leaders Committed to Antibiotic Stewardship

Antibiotic stewardship is the development, promotion, and implementation of activities to ensure the appropriate use of antibiotics. By  adopting antibiotic stewardship principles, organizations can improve how antibiotics are used and prescribed, and can slow the rise of antibiotic resistant infections.

Is your organization involved in stewardship activities or interested in making a commitment like these leaders? Use the instructions below and consider submitting a letter of commitment to HIP@cdc.gov.

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Leaders in health are invited to submit a description (or letter of commitment) of their organization’s commitment to actively promote and implement principles of good antibiotic stewardship, and specific actions the organization plans to take to advance antibiotic stewardship objectives in the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria[PDF – 37 pages] and the five-year National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria[PDF – 63 pages].

Commitment letters should be drafted on your organization’s letterhead and emailed to HIP@cdc.gov. Commitment letters should include the following information:

  1. Name of organization and point of contact’s information (i.e., name, title, phone number, email address).
  2. A description of your organization’s commitment to promote and implement principles of good antibiotic stewardship. The description should include the type of activities for implementation by your organization (i.e., antimicrobial use and resistance reporting, implementing stewardship programs and evidence-based guidelines, diagnostics development, implementation, Get Smart education) and specific actions your organization will take over the next five years to advance specific antibiotic stewardship objectives under Goal 1 of the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria[PDF – 37 pages]. Descriptions should also include targets, milestones, or accomplishments to benchmark your stewardship success.
  3. Language indicating if CDC can summarize your organization’s commitments, share the summaries online, and make your commitment letter available on request. See the List of Commitment Letters below for summaries of stewardship commitments already received. After your organization’s commitment letter is received, you will be contacted for additional information about antibiotic stewardship implementation activities.

The summary of stewardship commitments found below are activities submitted to CDC that are being implemented by leaders in the U.S.  Select a category below to view each organization’s commitment and key activities.

List of Commitments

A - AL

  • AARP will provide information to its members to help them have informed conversations with their health care providers about the appropriate use of antibiotics and their increased risk for Clostridium difficile infection, and help inform people about the importance of taking antibiotics only when needed and as directed.

  • Abbott/Ibis Biosciences will work with the FDA to bring technology like IRIDICA, a new molecular testing platform, to the U.S., and is focused on developing complementary testing innovations to help improve appropriate antibiotic usage. Abbott is currently committed to:

  • ABIM Foundation (Choosing Wisely with Consumer Reports) is committed to operating a grant program in which more than 20 participating health systems, hospitals and medical groups will work toward a goal of reducing their utilization of antibiotics to treat viral infections in adults. Interventions may include clinical decision support, data/feedback, academic detailing and community, patient and physician education. The ABIM Foundation is also committed to continuing to operate Choosing Wisely, in which participating medical specialty societies recommend tests and treatments within their specialty that are overused.

  • Accelerate Diagnostics will sponsor studies on the role of rapid diagnostics and early antimicrobial de-escalation in hospitals, plus pursue the development and regulatory clearance of rapid diagnostic tests.
  • Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education will identify and disseminate targeted antibiotic stewardship information to faculty, residents, and fellows, reaching over 122,000 residents and fellows in over 9,500 programs in pediatrics, internal medicine, family medicine, surgery and more.
  • Allergan will support: greater sharing of surveillance data generate by the company that specifically look at resistance prevalence phenotypically (national, regional, and hospital unit-specific data); generation of real-world outcomes data to highlight the effect of stewardship on outcomes; and establishment of collaborative research networks/centers of excellence to bring greater awareness of resistance prevalence and burden of illness.
  • AdvaMedDX will develop educational materials on the role of diagnostic tests in fighting antibiotic resistance, develop collaborative efforts to disseminate aforementioned educational materials to hospitals, clinicians, and public health professionals, and organize a Capitol Hill briefing to educate policy makers on how diagnostic tests fight antibiotic resistance. See the White House press release for additional information[PDF – 10 pages].
  • Advancing Excellence in Long-Term Care Collaborative will help translate the tools and resources to support efforts to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and promote better antibiotic stewardship.  In addition, the Advancing Excellence in American’s Nursing Homes Campaign’s (AE) website (www.nhqualitycampaign.org) is the repository of resources and clinical tools featuring nine organization and clinical goals, including an infection prevention goal focused on reducing C. difficile infections, to assist nursing homes in improving the quality of life and quality of care of residents.
  • Alere will highlight the critical role that diagnostics play in effective antibiotic stewardship; publicly release educational materials on the use of rapid diagnostics in antimicrobial stewardship, including Continuing Medical Education accredited webinars; and complete a study on the acceptability, feasibility, barriers and challenges to use of specific, new, point of care tests in United States primary care settings.
  • ALK-Abello will educate medical professionals and patients on the prevalence of inaccurate penicillin allergies, the downsides of using alternative antibiotics, and their role in bacterial infection and drug resistance; collaborate with industry leaders to improve antibiotic prescribing and help prevent the spread of resistant bacteria by encouraging penicillin allergy evaluation prior to use of alternatives; strengthen antibiotic stewardship through reduction in overprescribed alternatives; and continuously fund research on how inappropriate antibiotic use impacts patient treatment, antibiotic resistance, and healthcare economics.
  • Alliance for Aging Research will create and distribute health education materials for seniors and family caregivers on antibiotic misuse and resistance, as well as the value of stewardship, in clinical and long-term care settings with a downloadable fact sheet and a “pocket film;” elevate the issue of antibiotic misuse and resistance, as well as the value of stewardship, within the aging social service and provider community; and continue to expand work on healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) by launching a public policy effort to require long-term care setting reporting of HAIs to the CDC, and to initiate stewardship programs to help reduce the incidence of HAIs.
  • Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) will continue to work with CDC and WHO to compile and disseminate information on resistance and model interventions to combat the antibiotic resistance problem; customize its APUA Newsletter with a “Prudent Antibiotic Use“ component focused on stewardship challenges and opportunities and tailored to specific goals in the Action Plan and to the needs of the participating agencies; tap into its network of APUA opinion leaders to develop webinars related to various aspects of the proposed stewardship plan; propose a national PCP survey and physician education campaign to explore the challenges involved in appropriate antibiotic prescribing and attitudes concerning the potential for rapid point of care diagnostics in improving antibiotic use; and work with agencies to establish a pilot interventions network.

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