Why Clinicians Need to Know the Challenges Associated with Getting AST Results

Jason Gallagher, PharmD, BCPS, FCCP, FIDSA, clinical professor of pharmacy practice, Temple University, explains why clinicians should be aware of the challenges associated with getting antimicrobial susceptibility testing results available.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

“It’s important that clinicians make others aware of the challenges that are out there in getting antimicrobial susceptibility testing results available, particularly for new drugs. The delays that exist from the drug approval to tests being approved has significantly impacted our ability to use those drugs, and we all have to understand that they exist. [We also need to be aware of] the challenges they incur on the microbiology lab to manually do some of those tests that can’t be done in the normal, easy ways that we generally depend upon.”