|
Welcome to the Innovate4AMR 2019 newsletter! In these communications, you’ll be introduced to resources that will help you learn about antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the inspiring stories behind some of last year’s winning teams. You’ll also see regular updates and reminders through this forum. If you have not already done so, please sign up to receive this newsletter and further updates here!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What is Innovate4AMR? Innovate4AMR is a student online competition looking for innovative and creative solutions that will help address the issues of AMR from a systems change perspective, sponsored by ReAct - Action on Antibiotic Resistance, the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA), and the IDEA (Innovation + Design Enabling Access) Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. We are looking for competitors to focus on tackling antimicrobial stewardship in low-resource healthcare settings, with the specific objectives of increasing access and reducing inequity (that is to say, not encouraging overuse or underuse). The solutions should be context-specific and carefully catered to the existing AMR landscape of a given geographic area. Solutions should take into consideration the strategic set of actors to move the issue. The proposed solutions should be financially sustainable with the potential for real-world adoption, scale-up, and strong likelihood of achieving a lasting impact. Student teams are encouraged to involve multiple disciplines, including but not limited to medicine, public health, engineering, food consumption, supply chain, business management and finance. Prior experience is not required, and winning student teams will be flown to a capacity building workshop in Geneva, Switzerland, sponsored by the World Health Organization. Listen to a brief introduction to Innovate4AMR and share word of the competition through the video below. Learn more about the rules for entering Innovate4AMR and sign up for these weekly newsletters at Innovate4AMR.org.
|
|
|
|
View the 2019 Innovate4AMR introductory video
|
|
|
Stay in the loop and never miss an update!
|
|
|
|
Innovate4AMR champion highlights
In this section, we'll be highlighting past Innovate4AMR competitors, as well as current AMR champions around the world:
- One of the past Innovate4AMR winning teams, Team Anti²biotics from China, developed a QR code-based system that can track
 and trace antibiotics through the supply chain (manufacturer, wholesaler, hospitals, clinicians, and patients). Since the competition last year, this team has been working with professors at West China Hospital to assess implementation of their revised project in Chinese hospitals. In addition, the group has participated in national project competitions to gain more funding and support. For this year's World Antibiotics Awareness Week, the team will be collaborating with the West China Hospital's Department of Publicity to make AMR-related videos.
|
|
|
Educational Resources
Provided below are a few introductory materials to the field of AMR. In follow-on newsletters, we’ll provide additional policy tools, examples of ongoing AMR projects, and links to short videos or resources that should help you pull together a proposal for submission.
- The Antibiotic Resistance Coalition (ARC), consisting of over 25 members, mostly civil society organizations, publishes a monthly ARC newsletter, which can be found and subscribed to here. This newsletter covers ARC activities, policy updates, and research roundups on AMR, and the Coalition also responds to key strategies, puts out discussion papers, and participates in a variety of events around AMR. More information on the ARC can be found here.
- A video overview of AMR, as well as the key drivers, put together by the New York Times, can be found here.
- One report outlining the mechanisms and drivers of AMR can be found here (Holmes et al. 2015), and a systematic review of these drivers of AMR can be found here (Chatterjee et al. 2018).
- Useful AMR database resources include: the Global database for AMR country self assessments, the Global antimicrobial resistance surveillance system (GLASS) report, and the Monitoring & Evaluation Framework for the GAP on AMR.
- A review of various strategies used to improve hospital antimicrobial stewardship can be found here (Chung et al. 2013), and a review of quality measures for assessing the impact of AMR stewardship programs in hospitals can be found here (Akpan et al. 2015).
- For more educational resources, visit "The Challenge" tab at Innovate4AMR.org
|
|
|
|
|
|
