Antibiotic Awareness Week 2024

Working Against Antimicrobial Resistance: Collaborative Innovations and Translational Strategies 

As a physician and researcher, I recognize how a team-based approach is essential to optimize patient care and safeguard antibiotics in the face of growing resistance. My interest in antimicrobial resistance started during my internal medicine/pediatrics residency, where I investigated the epidemiology of pediatric extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing organisms in the pediatric population. In my quest to understand more about drug-resistant bacteria, I completed my infectious diseases fellowship training at Northwestern University while studying reservoirs of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in patient and environmental collections along with specific strains of both hypervirulent and extensively drug-resistant bacteria found in hospitalized patients. Understanding how mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance work at the molecular level encouraged me to apply this knowledge to clinically oriented research projects, to ideally intervene in healthcare settings before patients become colonized or infected with these difficult to treat pathogens.

We know that bacterial resistance to frequently used antimicrobial therapies is a significant threat to human health. In the United States alone, there are over 2.8 million infections with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) annually.¹ Various methods of infection prevention have been instrumental in the reduction of MDRO human infections, especially those that are associated with healthcare environments, and I am working to advance this field of research. Currently, I am examining bacteria found on both patients and surfaces in their hospital room to determine if common prevention strategies like chlorhexidine bathing contribute to additional antimicrobial resistance, or if this approach is becoming less effective at preventing healthcare-associated infections. I am also participating in studies evaluating Candida auris decolonization and decontamination of patients and healthcare settings. Rush University is a proud member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epicenters program, allowing for a team-based and multi-center approach to combating our most drug-resistant bacteria within these projects.

The fight against antimicrobial resistance takes all of us – from EVS personnel sanitizing environments where these organisms to thrive, to bedside clinicians appropriately selecting antibiotic therapies, to administrative staff championing the availability and progression of research in the infectious diseases field. I look forward to continuing to find solutions and prevention strategies to ensure antimicrobial resistance is stopped in its tracks!