AAEM Makes Strong Commitments to Combating Antibiotic Resistance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2015

MILWAUKEE — The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) joins over 150 major food companies, retailers, and human and animal health stakeholders meeting today at the White House Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship to announce commitments to implement changes over the next five years to slow the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, detect resistant strains, preserve the efficacy of our existing antibiotics, and prevent the spread of resistant infections.

Read the Fact Sheet from the White House.

AAEM’s Commitments

As a part of our participation in the forum, AAEM commits to the following actions:

• AAEM commits to continuing its role as the lead emergency medicine organization advancing the appropriate use of antibiotics in the ED.
   
• AAEM commits to exploring formal partnerships with The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) to offer assistance with clinical practice guideline development.
   
• AAEM will publish an annual antimicrobial stewardship article in our bimonthly newsletter to coincide with the CDC Get Smart About Antibiotics Week activities.
   
• AAEM commits to developing position statements covering best practices in emergency care antibiotic stewardship.
   
• AAEM supports the development of ED specific antibiotic use quality measures that account for health care system factors which influence physician prescribing.
   
• AAEM commits to developing a series of open access podcasts focused on optimal antibiotic stewardship practices in the ED and in-depth reviews of any new medical literature on this subject. AAEM's other clinical podcast series had over 16,000 total downloads — which averages approximately 1,800 per episode. This educational material would be free to download on the AAEM website and iTunes, making it widely accessible to all emergency care providers, both domestic and international.
   
• AAEM’s Scientific Assembly is the premier educational conference in emergency medicine with over 1,000 attendees annually. Each year this conference includes a plenary session focused on the treatment of infectious diseases in the emergency department. This represents an ongoing opportunity to educate a large number of emergency physicians on optimal antibiotic stewardship practices.
   
• In order to coordinate activities following the White House summit, AAEM has named former board member, Dr. Michael Pulia, as the Chair of the AAEM Antimicrobial Stewardship Task Force. Dr. Pulia is an active researcher in this area and also the Director of a novel Emergency Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship program at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The role of this committee will be to liaison with IDSA and SHEA and take the lead role in developing the position statements and educational offerings outlined above.

AAEM president, Dr. Mark Reiter, MD MBA FAAEM, noted,

“As the coordination center for the health care system, there is a critical need foreffective ED antimicrobial stewardship interventions. Emergency physicians are also on the front line of the losing battle with multi-drug resistant bacteria as we increasingly encounter patients with infections that are virtually impossible to treat. Novel approaches to diagnosis and treatment are needed to stem the tide of antibiotic overuse while also improving the availability of effective antibiotics.”

As such, AAEM is honored to represent the specialty of emergency medicine at the White House Stewardship Summit and actively engage in this landmark opportunity to improve antimicrobial stewardship in the U.S. health care system.

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The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society in
emergency medicine today. As an organization, AAEM believes achievement of board
certification represents the only acceptable method of attaining recognition as a
specialist in emergency medicine.