A publication in The Lancet: Infectious Diseases about our work on a new model to optimise antibiotic treatment using data and AI.
A new approach to treating infections, led by Centres for Antimicrobial Optimisation Network (CAMO-Net) microbiologist Dr Alex Howard, could lead to better use of antibiotics and contribute towards lowering the risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans.
CAMO-Net brings together research teams from the University of Liverpool and Imperial College London in the UK, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Infectious Diseases Institute in Uganda, and the Faculty of Medicine at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
The network aims to address the global impact of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on human health. This will be achieved through optimising antimicrobial use through a sustainable global research ecosystem, developed across low, middle, and high resource settings, and across urban and rural environments.
Health-care systems, food supply chains, and society in general are threatened by the rise of AMR, which could lead to devastating consequences to societies around the world. This threat is driven by many factors, including inappropriate antimicrobial treatment by healthcare professionals.
Using a mathematically grounded, outcome-based measure of antimicrobial treatment, called imprecision modelling, researchers from the University of Liverpool have developed a new framework to support the decision-making capabilities of policy makers and leaders in health care, public health, regulatory agencies, and research and development.
By taking advantage of revolutions in the availability of electronic health-care data, computing, and data science, analysing data has been made possible with the clinically and scientifically guided use of artificial intelligence-based modelling.
The safe, practical, ethical, and sustainable operation of artificial intelligence will be informed by state-of-the-art implementation science incorporating clinician, patient, and public involvement.
The new framework will lead to a more sustainable use of antimicrobials around the world, contributing to a more effective approach to antimicrobial development, regulation, and prescribing. This in turn will help to address the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Alex Howard, who is also a Consultant in Medical Microbiology based at the University of Liverpool, said: “We are excited to share our plan for antimicrobial learning systems to better measure the harm of antibiotic treatment, a lot of which is currently hidden from prescribers but presents a serious threat to humanity. Projects like CAMO-NET will be critical to developing the kind of cross-disciplinary data science and artificial intelligence expertise that will make antimicrobial learning systems a reality.”
Anne-Grete Märtson, Post-Doctoral Researcher in the University of Liverpool’s Department of Antimicrobial Pharmacodynamics and Therapeutics, said: “Inappropriate antimicrobial therapy is causing unstoppable emergence of antimicrobial resistance. This viewpoint is demonstrating an exciting new framework to improve antibiotic prescribing using integrated data systems. Our goal was to highlight different steps in the patient pathway and propose solutions using artificial intelligence-based modelling to improve antimicrobial prescribing and eventually reduce the emergence of resistance”
Read the paper here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1473309923003675
You can find out more about the work of CAMO-Net by visiting camonet.org.
