Oliver Schacht, CEO of OpGen, Inc., examines the potential of bioinformatics in helping to fight antimicrobial resistance.
Bioinformatics
Infections pose numerous challenges to healthcare systems and contribute to higher morbidity, mortality and significantly increasing costs. While clinicians need to make rapid treatment decisions, often they rely on empirical use of antibiotics without knowing the causative pathogen or whether it is characterised as drug-susceptible or drug-resistant; consequently, leading to increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and multi-drug resistance (MDR). Solutions to support the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacterial and fungal infections must be at the forefront of healthcare professional’s minds as we begin a new year. Currently, these so-called “superbugs” are responsible for 35,000 deaths and 2.8 million infections annually in the US alone. In October 2020, the WHO placed antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on its list of the top 10 global public health threats. What’s more, the emergence of Covid-19 has heightened and accelerated additional AMR risks among hospitalised patients; it has been reported that 72% of Covid-19 patients received antibiotics even when not clinically indicated in most cases.
In 2021, technology platforms and solutions that simplify and facilitate detection of drug-resistant infections will continue to evolve and provide value in the fight against AMR. With more and more healthcare systems adopting platforms that deliver treatment insights to enable smarter use of antibiotics, we can expect to see an uptick in cloud-based solutions that encourage collaboration between healthcare facilities and providers. Additionally, as the world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, data-sharing platforms capable of delivering broader insights on infectious disease outbreaks will become valuable solutions for epidemiologists and frontline workers alike. Here are a few ways these platforms can impact outcomes and inform decision-making at the patient level and more broadly: