CAMO-Net’s fifth in-person gathering took place in December in India, bringing colleagues together from around the world to build on existing collaborations and to learn more about the breadth of antimicrobial optimisation work taking place across the country. Hosted across sites in Kochi and Chandigarh, the meetings created space for shared reflection, deeper connection and collective thinking around antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
With careful consideration of climate impact and the carbon footprint of travel, much of CAMO-Net’s collaborative work takes place online. However, meeting in person continues to play an important role in strengthening relationships, building trust and enabling the kind of open dialogue and creative exchange that is difficult to replicate virtually. These India meetings offered exactly that opportunity.
Grounding collaboration in context
The in-person gathering followed AMR Next 2025, a major international conference held the previous week in Kochi, which brought together clinicians, researchers, policymakers and global health organisations to explore forward-looking approaches to AMR. With sessions spanning diagnostics, stewardship, AI, One Health and national AMR priorities, the conference provided a rich backdrop for CAMO-Net colleagues to continue conversations in a more focused, collaborative setting.
Building on this momentum, the CAMO-Net meetings centred on learning from work underway across India, while creating space to reflect on shared challenges and opportunities across sites. Discussions explored antimicrobial stewardship, antibiotic optimisation, diagnostics, digital tools, socio-behavioural drivers and data-informed decision-making, drawing on the diverse expertise within the network.
Learning from practice
A key feature of the programme was a series of hospital tours at Amrita Hospital and PGIMER Chandigarh, offering colleagues the opportunity to see antimicrobial optimisation in practice. These visits provided valuable insight into local systems, workflows and innovations, and prompted rich discussion with clinical teams about implementation, constraints and context-specific solutions.
Seeing this work first-hand helped ground wider discussions in real-world practice, reinforcing the importance of designing approaches that are responsive to local health system realities.
Strengthening collaboration through presence
Dr Sanjeev Singh, Medical Director at Amrita Hospital and CAMO-Net India Co-lead, said:
“Hosting CAMO-Net colleagues in India has been a real privilege. Bringing together expertise from across the network creates space for meaningful exchange and shared learning, and helps accelerate the development of practical, scalable approaches to antimicrobial optimisation that are rooted in real-world settings.”
Professor Nusrat Shafiq, CAMO-Net Co-lead and Professor at PGIMER Chandigarh, added: “It has been a pleasure to host CAMO-Net colleagues at in India and to share our work on the ground. Coming together in person allows us to learn from one another, strengthen relationships and explore how our different strengths can complement each other in supporting more integrated, multidisciplinary approaches to antimicrobial optimisation.”
Professor Alison Holmes, CAMO-Net Lead, said: “Coming together in person creates a different kind of space for collaboration. These meetings allow for open discussion, shared reflection and relationship-building that simply isn’t possible online. Spending time together in India has strengthened connections across the network and helped shape our thinking for the work ahead.”
Building momentum for what comes next
As the meetings concluded, CAMO-Net colleagues reflected on the shared learning from India and the importance of maintaining momentum between in-person gatherings. The strength of the network – rooted in trust, collaboration and mutual learning – was a recurring theme throughout.
By grounding global collaboration in local context, the India meetings reinforced the value of coming together to listen, learn and think collectively.
