Development and Implementation of a Mobile Application for Choosing Empirical Antimicrobial Therapy for Bacteremia, Pneumonia, Urinary Tract Infection, and Skin and Soft Tissue Infection among Hospitalized Patients

Abstract

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and computerized clinical decision support programs are effective antimicrobial stewardship strategies. The DigitalAMS™, a mobile-based application for choosing empirical antimicrobial therapy under the hospital’s CPGs, was implemented at Siriraj Hospital and evaluated. From January to June 2018, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 401 hospitalized adults who received ≥1 dose of antimicrobials and had ≥1 documented site-specific infection. The antimicrobial regimen prescribed by the ward physician (WARD regimen), recommended by the DigitalAMS™ (APP regimen), and recommended by two independent infectious disease (ID) physicians before (Emp-ID regimen) and after (Def-ID regimen) the final microbiological results became available were compared in a pairwise fashion. The percent agreement of antimicrobial prescribing between the APP and Emp-ID regimens was 85.7% in the bacteremia group, 59.1% in the pneumonia group, 78.6% in the UTI group, and 85.2% in the SSTI group. The percent agreement between the APP and Emp-ID regimens was significantly higher than that between the WARD and Emp-ID regimens in three site-specific infection groups: the bacteremia group (85.7% vs. 47.9%, p < 0.001), the UTI group (78.6% vs. 37.8%, p < 0.001), and the SSTI group (85.2% vs. 40.2%, p < 0.001). Furthermore, the percent agreement between the APP and Def-ID regimens was similar to that between the Emp-ID and Def-ID regimens in all sites of infection. In conclusions, the implementation of DigitalAMS™ seems useful but needs some revisions. The dissemination of this ready-to-use application with customized clinical practice guidelines to other hospital settings may be beneficial.