Telehealth: Bringing Antimicrobial Stewardship Where It’s Needed Most
Antimicrobial stewardship efforts need infectious disease doctors, but they are in short supply. Telehealth may be the answer.
Alex Trzebucki, MD, interviewed with Contagion to discuss his research, “Telemedicine models and outreach to community sites—lessons learned over during a challenging year,” recently presented at the World Anti-Microbial Resistance Congress.
Trzebucki takes a special interest in infectious disease (ID) and antimicrobial stewardship, saying, “Despite heavy guidelines from the government about establishing stewardship programs, most small hospitals don’t have robust stewardship programs and struggle to create them…a large reason for that is the lack of ID expertise.”
Trzebucki and his team endeavored to create telehealth models that can remedy disparities in ID care. Trzebucki emphasized the importance of this work, which he describes as doing a service for the country. Infectious disease experts remain in short supply, especially in areas like rural communities that need them the most.
Trzebucki says it is imperative that we “save and protect the antimicrobials that we have now, given the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance in our country.”
Trzebucki is the Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
