Extracts below and a comment from me. Full text: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/amr-chatbo...
AMR chatbot could prevent drug-resistant infections in African hospitals
Developers say the phone-based tool, which advises medics on how to prescribe antibiotics, has already helped raise the quality of care...
A phone-based chatbot advising medics how to prescribe antibiotics has helped raise the quality of care in African hospitals and should stop bugs developing dangerous resistance, developers say.
Staff at four hospitals across Zambia and Kenya have been using two digital tools in a pilot project to try to address one of the world’s biggest health threats...
Using antibiotics when they are not necessary, using the wrong ones, or getting the dosage wrong, all add to the chances that bugs will develop resistance.
With a shortage of new drugs in the development pipeline, one push to defeat AMR has been to get medics to stick to existing prescription, dosage and treatment advice...
Early results from the scheme have shown medics prescribing fewer antibiotics, but patients in some cases also getting better sooner because doctors were able to tailor treatment to individuals more precisely...
One of the programme’s tools is an interactive app which lets doctors and nurses enter patient symptoms, vital signs and lab results.
The tool then comes back with treatment options based on national guidelines and World Health Organization (WHO) advice...
More information: https://www.aspire-amr-project.org/project/55b7ae1162cf2865
COMMENT (NPW): There are at least two approaches to meeting information needs for prescribers and users of antibiotics. One way, as above, is to conduct pilot projects in individual countries, with a view to scaling up nationally. An alternative approach is to make a prescribing tool similar to the British National Formulary (BNF) freely available on an open license worldwide, so that countries can readily adapt for national use. The second approach has two advantages: first, the tool would be available to all prescribers (and users) without the need for pilot studies and scaling up; and second, it would instantly help meet the information needs of prescribers and users of all medicines, not just antibiotics. And that would have the potential to save countless lives. Several years ago, the BNF used to be freely available online, but the publisher (BMJ Group and Pharmaceutical Press) decided to put it behind a paywall and it is now largely inaccessible. A great opportunity missed.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org