Antimicrobial resistance is a rising global public health crisis with an estimated 1.27 million attributable deaths per year worldwide. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are important modifiable drivers of rising drug-resistant infections. The majority of antibiotics are prescribed by primary care physicians. Peer comparison audit and feedback on antibiotic prescribing is a potentially scalable and effective intervention. Effective audit and feedback incorporate behavioural science principles to drive behaviour change and improve the quality of patient care. This talk will review recent evidence on the effectiveness of antibiotic audit and feedback in primary care as well as current and future initiatives to incorporate audit and feedback into antimicrobial resistance action plans in Ontario.

Learning objectives:

• Discuss the implications for incorporating antibiotic audit and feedback into AMR action plans and antimicrobial stewardship
• Identify the important public health threat from antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
• Describe the risks of antibiotic overuse
• Interpret recent data on the effectiveness of antibiotic audit and feedback in primary care

Panelist:

Dr. Kevin Schwartz, MD MSc FRCPC DTM&H, is the division head for infectious diseases at St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto and co-medical director for antimicrobial stewardship at Unity Health Toronto. He is an academic infection control and antimicrobial stewardship physician at Public Health Ontario, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and an adjunct scientist at ICES. His clinical area of interest is adult and pediatric infectious diseases and tropical medicine. His research interests include vaccine preventable diseases and antimicrobial stewardship with a particular focus on improving community antibiotic use to slow the emergence of drug-resistant infections.