Heralding Education on Antimicrobial Resistance
HEAR courses comprise an interactive two day session with lectures and laboratory work. An international faculty interacts with participants from several countries. HEAR allows for effective exchange of clinical experiences and expertise among clinicians, pharmacists and microbiologists with the patient’s need utmost in mind. Liofilchem organizes several courses per year that cover a variety of topics with the goal of sharing the latest information to promote the rational use of antimicrobial agents.
Infections caused by resistant organisms pose significant challenges especially among immunocompromised critical care patients. The use of S-I-R categorical results to guide treatment of these “non-standardized” patients may not always be acceptable. The clinical importance of the MIC relative to PK/PD parameters to help optimize antibiotic choice and dosing regimens can be crucial in this patient population. Equally, the need to improve current methods to better detect emerging resistances such as hetero-resistance to glycopeptides among staphylococci (hGISA) is clearly being recognized. To address some of the resistance, diagnostic and treatment challenges faced by infectious disease specialists, ICU clinicians, clinical pharmacists and microbiologists, Liofilchem has invested in non-profit HEAR courses dedicated to education in the field of Antimicrobial Resistance Testing.
HEAR LECTURES
- Antimicrobial agents, resistance, drug development and treatment issues.
- Resistance mechanisms in different organism groups.
- Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) and Antimicrobial Resistance Testing (ART) concepts and methods.
- Clinical importance of MIC testing for serious infections such as bacteremia, endocarditis, meningitis and cystic fibrosis.
- Pharmacodynamic (PD)/Pharmacokinetic (PK) principles to target antibiotic therapy in critically ill patients.
- Susceptibility testing and treatment challenges posed by fastidious organisms, fungi and mycobacteria.
- Direct specimen testing and drug combination testing.
- Liofilchem® MIC Test Strip (MTS) predefined gradient technology for MIC testing, resistance detection and other special applications.
LABORATORY SESSIONS
- MTS for bacteria and fungi.
- Comparisons of AST methods e.g. disc diffusion, agar dilution and broth microdilution.
- Demonstrations of MTS for fastidious organisms, resistance detection and combination testing.
- Fine-tuning of MTS set-up, reading and interpretation of results.
OPPORTUNITIES
- Exchange of research and clinical experiences among peers.
- Foster AST and MTS experts to become local resources.
- Identify AST and MIC testing challenges and solutions.
- Define AST algorithms and position MTS as a complement.
- Explore collaborative efforts to develop new MTS
- Enable Liofilchem to learn about customers needs.