The program is to develop healthcare professionals’ knowledge and skills needed to optimize patient care and clinical outcomes. The program provides provide health care professionals and students with a review of fundamental principles of infectious diseases and a more in-depth coverage of selected topics. Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:
- Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental concepts and nomenclature in clinical microbiology.
- Demonstrate an understanding of in vitro susceptibility testing and apply results of these tests to the selection and therapeutic use of antimicrobial agents.
- Recognize common mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance and appropriately select or modify antimicrobial therapy to achieve improved patient outcomes.
- Demonstrate an understanding of antimicrobial PK/PD characteristics and PK/PD modeling (e.g., Monte Carlo simulation), and apply PK/PD principles to the care of individual patients with specific infectious diseases.
- Critically evaluate differences in the pharmacology, spectra of activity, PK/PD characteristics, and other important properties of antimicrobials in order to select the most appropriate agent for an individual patient with a specific infectious disease.
- Use evidence-based guidelines in conjunction with relevant patient factors to formulate or modify patient-specific medication plans for the treatment of infectious diseases.
- Demonstrate an understanding of fundamental concepts of antimicrobial stewardship and apply these concepts to the optimization of clinical and medication use outcomes in individual patients.
- Identify key elements of an antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP), and formulate plans for implementation or ongoing development of a formalized ASP within a given institution.
- Appropriately apply principles of infection prevention to the care of individual patients and institutional practices related to infectious diseases and antimicrobial use.
- Critically evaluate literature related to infectious diseases, including study design and statistical analyses common to clinical trials in infectious diseases.
- Evaluate web-based resources used to obtain information related to infectious diseases pharmacotherapy (e.g., EUCAST, CLSI M100, UptoDate)
