The ibs.GRANADA participates in a project to design and pilot a digital tool that evaluates the use and resistance of antibiotic treatments
The research, funded with 1,2 million, will be carried out until 2026 in collaboration with the University of Granada and the company Athento Europa
Professionals from the Granada Clinical University Hospital and the Gregorio Marañón General University Hospital in Madrid are participating in a research project, with European funding, to design and pilot a digital tool that will allow the use and resistance of antibiotic treatments in patients to be assessed. The research will be carried out until 2026 by a consortium formed by the Granada Biosanitary Research Institute, the Gregorio Marañón Health Research Institute, the University of Granada and the company Athento Europa.
Thus, the project entitled 'Automated instrument for the evaluation of the use and resistance to antimicrobials (in English, AI-AMS)', has managed to be funded in a public-private call with 1,2 million euros by the CDTI, a Public Business Entity dependent on the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities that promotes innovation and technological development of Spanish companies, with funds from the European Union in the context of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PERTE).
The project is based on the results obtained with the development of the “Intelligent Tool for the Management of Adverse Effects” (Higea) program (FIS PI12/02883) at the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid, a clinical decision-making support system that integrates patient clinical information from the hospital's different systems (medical history, laboratory and microbiology data, prescription program and diet program). It offers integrated information in real time, which is transformed and transferred so that, after the application of clinical rules/algorithms, safety and efficiency alerts are generated. The system is capable of reasoning all this information to monitor the results obtained in patients. This allows the induction of treatment changes with high precision, thus guaranteeing patient safety and the appropriate use of resources.
In this way, and for several years now, the Clínico San Cecilio has been working together with the Gregorio Marañón on the evolution of this system to provide support in clinical decision-making related to the appropriate use of antibiotics in the treatment of hospitalized patients. Likewise, the researchers are working on the automated generation of results indicators that will enrich the functionalities of this tool. The advance that this research project represents is precisely being able to optimize the system to make it extensive to more patients and hospitals.
Specifically, at the Clínico San Cecilio, a multidisciplinary team of professionals from the areas of Hospital Pharmacy, Clinical Analysis, Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Diseases, Intensive Care, Quality and Humanization of Care, Patient Safety, and Information and Communication Technologies is participating in the development and piloting of this tool. However, experts from the University of Granada in mathematical and biostatistical modelling, methodology, and technological and knowledge transfer are also collaborating on the project.
Likewise, the previous experience of Gregorio Marañón is essential to validate the results of the project and incorporate new and increasingly advanced modules into the tool for the management and exploitation of health data, guaranteeing maximum security and efficiency of the treatments. Collaboration between public and private institutions and organisations is also necessary, as is the case of the company Athento Europa, dedicated to IT consultancy and software development.
The ultimate goal of the multidisciplinary project, based on the use of cutting-edge technologies, is to enable PROA (Antimicrobial Use Optimization Program) teams to reach the maximum number of hospitalized patients possible and contribute to the personalized optimization of their anti-infective treatments, together with the clinical professionals who prescribe them.
The aim of this is to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics. Thus, while the patient benefits from the best treatment available, it contributes to slowing the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance, increasing patient safety, optimising resources and generating more knowledge about infectious diseases.
It is worth noting the constant increase in bacterial resistance and the depletion of effective antibiotics to combat it, which is causing a global public health problem that is causing a large number of deaths. Hence the importance of advancing projects and research of this type, which promote an appropriate use of antibiotic treatments in the health field.
The project is currently in the phase of fully integrating all the software; it is 80% technically developed; and in January of this year the piloting of the tool with real patients began.
Antibiotics, different drugs
Antimicrobials are drugs unlike any other. Their effectiveness in reducing morbidity and mortality is far superior to that of other groups of drugs. However, on the other hand, they are the only drugs with a high ecological impact, so their administration can contribute to the emergence and spread of microbial resistance. In addition, they are used by doctors from virtually all specialties.
The current complexity in the management of infectious diseases and the increase in bacterial resistance makes it essential to establish measures and programs to optimize the use of antimicrobials in hospitals.
To address this problem, multidisciplinary programmes have been implemented in recent years to try to improve the use of antibiotics. These are the Antimicrobial Optimisation Programmes (PROA) which in Andalusia are part of the Comprehensive Programme for the Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Related Infections and Appropriate Use of Antimicrobials (PIRASOA) of the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Andalusian Government and the National Plan against Antibiotic Resistance (PRAN) of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products.
