Optimizing Patient Care and Combating Resistance: The Role of Multidisciplinary Collaboration in UTI Management

In this final episode of the complicated urinary tract infection (UTI) podcast series, Kim Leuthner, PharmD, FIDSA, discusses the importance of improving personalized medicine for treating complicated UTIs and the role of antimicrobial stewardship in addressing the issue.

Leuthner suggests that electronic health records can be utilized to develop systems for effective communication between hospitals, particularly in sharing information about patients' past medical history of resistance and colonization with multidrug-resistant organisms. This can aid in promptly isolating infected patients and making appropriate empirical treatment choices.

Antimicrobial stewardship is highlighted as a crucial approach to monitor institutional practices, provide education on pathogens and dosing, collaborate with infection preventionists, optimize diagnostics, and tackle resistance. Leuthner emphasizes the need for better engagement and understanding from individual physicians to recognize the value of stewardship in optimizing patient care, improving diagnostics, and preserving the microbiome.

Finally, Leuthner notes the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration among healthcare professionals to achieve successful stewardship and prevent resistance.

This is part 3 of a mini podcast series with Kim Leuthner, PharmD, FIDSA, an infectious disease clinical specialist at the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. Click here for part 1, in which Leuthner breaks down what makes a UTI complicated and highlights the patients most at risk.