Antimicrobial Stewardship: Important to All (CE Session)
Description:
Date/Time: April 10, 2024 | 3:45- 4:25 pm ET
Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing commonly occurs in the outpatient setting. Antimicrobial stewardship programs are recommended for use in the hospital, but less is known about whether and how they will work in the ambulatory setting. Pressure for antibiotics is perceived as a major barrier to the more judicious use of antibiotics. To improve the effectiveness and sustainability of outpatient antimicrobial stewardship, it is critical to engage clinicians in recognizing that their behavior contributes to antibiotic overuse and address the pressure to prescribe antibiotics. This session aims to provide learners with a comprehensive understanding of their role in preventing antimicrobial resistance, acquiring practical knowledge on how individual actions contribute to this global challenge.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, the learner should be able to:
- Restate the importance of antimicrobial stewardship both in the hospital and community setting;
- Describe how they can help prevent antimicrobial resistance.
Target Audience:
Nurses, advanced practice providers, physicians, emergency responders, pharmacists, medical technologists, respiratory therapists, physical/occupational therapists, infection prevention specialists, data/quality specialists, and more.
Alyssa R. Letourneau, MD, MPH, FIDSA
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Alyssa R. Letourneau MD, MPH, FIDSA, received an Sc.B. in neuroscience from Brown University and an M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine. She subsequently completed her residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital. During her training, she received the Edward Kass Award for Clinical Excellence from the Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society and completed her Master of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed an additional year of clinical training in caring for immunocompromised hosts at Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Dr. Letourneau is the Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She cares for patients both inpatient and in the clinic. Her clinical interest is seeing immunocompromised hosts including patients with leukemia, lymphoma, those who have undergone stem cell transplant or CAR-T, as well as patients who will undergo immune modulating therapy. She also has expertise in managing patients with multi-drug resistant organisms.
In 2021 and 2022, she was awarded the MGH-BWH Infectious Disease Fellows Faculty Teaching Award to a faculty member for outstanding clinical education. In 2023, she became a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and was honored as a Top Doctor in Boston by Boston Magazine.