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Public-private partnerships can improve global health care
Jason Buck, FirstlineThe partnership between the WHO and Firstline—an intergovernmental agency and a private firm—is a blueprint for leveraging global expertise and technology to tackle grand-scale health challenges.
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Case study: Easily launch impact-driven stewardship guidance
An Interview with Dr. Jamie Wagner and Dr. Andrew Watkins of St. Dominic Jackson-Memorial Hospital, Mississippi, USAFirstline works with stewardship teams every day to create more impact for their guidelines and deliver real-time guidance for providers. But how does that happen exactly? We recently interviewed two pharmacist leads at St. Dominic’s Hospital, Dr. Jamie Wagner and Dr. Andrew Watkins about their onboarding experience with Firstline, and to get a deeper understanding of their ASP objectives.
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Decision Support for the treatment of companion and production animals
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the top global health threats of this century. People, animals, and the environment are inextricably linked and are all being adversely affected by the steady growth of antimicrobial resistance. To combat AMR we must work collaboratively across all sectors and disciplines. Dr. Murray Gillies, a veterinarian and Canadian dairy producer, leads us through the key issues and opportunities in AMR in this field and the importance of embracing a One Health approach.
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How Firstline flips the script on the traditional development of clinical pathways
Holly Chen, Clinical Community Manager, FirstlineClinical experts will tell you that creating and delivering clear, intuitive and relevant ID treatment guidelines is essential to guidance being actually used by providers at the point of care. At Firstline, there are three pillars of information design applied consistently to every clinical pathway we encounter - Crystallization, Standardization, and Localization. Let’s explore those concepts and how Firstline’s trusted approach, guided by innovation, logic and design, helps ID teams improve prescribing behaviour and patient outcomes.
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Firstline Community: Sharing knowledge to protect the world
Holly Chen, Clinical Community Manager, FirstlineDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, ID professionals were inundated with new research and frequently changing recommendations. The Firstline Community was created with the objective to help information move faster, reduce redundancy, and minimize misinformation. The Community now has over 750 members from all fields of ID around the world who collaboratively address tough clinical questions that are not readily available in research. It has also created a direct path for ID experts to provide insights to clinicians in countries whose stewardship programs are still in their infancy.
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How Technology Empowers Clinical Knowledge
Jason Buck, Chief Strategy Officer, FirstlineFirstline improves the flow of clinical knowledge within and between healthcare organisations. Contrary to popular belief this is not done with magic, but with sophisticated technology supporting sound information design. Here's how we do it.
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Information Design: WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Book Infographics
Firstline TeamHow is scientific information distilled from long-form, research based material into concise guidance suitable for use at the point of care? Read how the Firstline team shared our information design expertise and collaborated with the WHO to create clear, succinct, and globally relevant companion infographics to the WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Book.
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How Samaritan Health is using Firstline to prepare for Monkeypox
An Interview with Dr. Adam Brady, MD, Infectious Disease Physician, and Dr. Ryan Moore, PharmD, Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist, of Samaritan Health Services, Corvallis, Oregon.Samaritan Health Services' antimicrobial stewardship team shares how using the Firstline library, analytics and in-app notifications expands the reach of their small ASP team to engage providers across the breadth of their five-hospital health system, and how they are using it to prepare for Monkeypox.
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Knowledge Translation: WHO Essential Medicines List AWaRe Antibiotic Book
An interview with Dr. Mark Loeb and Dr. Mike Sharland.In the broad and shifting field of medicine there is an understanding that progress is both necessary and inevitable. Healthcare providers have more access to knowledge than ever before, and this knowledge is being constantly updated and refined by experts and researchers all over the globe. As more research is done, and more studies are circulated, medical professionals are faced with an ever-growing mountain of evidence. As incredible as this vast body of knowledge is, it speaks to a specific problem that needs to be addressed - its vastness.
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Antimicrobial Resistance - The Silent Pandemic
We trust our medical providers to take care of us, to diagnose and solve problems. Perhaps most importantly, we trust that medicine will work but face an increasingly obvious reality where this is not always the case. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, health professionals are cautioning against a silent pandemic that is ever growing: Antimicrobial Resistance.
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Response To The Humanitarian Crisis In Ukraine
The escalating war in Ukraine is devastating a healthcare system that supports over 40 million people. The disruption of basic public health services and mass population displacement has led to a humanitarian crisis within Ukraine as well as in neighboring nations. The Firstline platform can help.
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Application of Firstline in Abia State, Nigeria
An Interview with Dr. Kelechi Eguzo, MD, MPH, PhD (c), Medical Doctor at Nigerian Christian Hospital, and President of Marjorie Bash FoundationFirstline’s Humanitarian mission is to protect the world from the rise of drug-resistant infections by helping healthcare organizations deliver localized infectious disease guidelines on a widely accessible device. We recently spoke with Dr. Kelechi Eguzo, who is leading the effort to develop standardized guidance in Abia State, Nigeria using the Firstline platform.
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Insights on using Firstline’s Community Content Library
An Interview with Travis Kremmin, PharmD, BCIDP, BCPS, Infectious Disease Clinical Specialist, AdventHealth Kansas City and Jennifer Macmillan, MSc, MD, FRCSC, FACS, Chair of Antimicrobial Advisory Committee, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, Huntsville, OntarioOur mission at Firstline is to bring people and knowledge together. With that in mind, we created our Community Content Library, to support knowledge sharing between ID specialists and expedite that flow of knowledge to providers quickly. The Community library includes thousands of vetted guidelines from hundreds of hospitals to use as a resource when developing your own guidelines, so that you can copy and adapt what works from other organizations. We recently spoke with Travis Kremmin, Infectious Disease Clinical Specialist, AdventHealth Kansas City and Jennifer Macmillan, Chair of Antimicrobial Advisory Committee, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare, to learn more about their experiences using the library and how it has changed their practice.
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Supporting One Health: A Point of Care tool for Veterinarians
An Interview with Dr. Shane Renwick, Manager, National Issues, Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA)The One Health initiative is an approach that recognizes that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and our shared environment. To combat antimicrobial resistance, we collectively need to be good stewards of antimicrobials for both human and animal use. Firstline is excited to partner with the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) in our first of several animal health initiatives offering hospital-grade tools to help veterinarians make better prescribing choices. We recently spoke with Dr. Shane Renwick to highlight more about this project.
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Building a Study to Measure the Impact of Firstline on Patient Outcomes
An Interview with Dr. Peter Daley and Gerry McDonald, BSc. Pharm, Eastern HealthEffective antimicrobial stewardship interventions need to improve patient outcomes to be deemed successful. The ASP team at Eastern Health recently published a study proving the impact of using the Firstline app to dramatically improve patient outcomes at their hospital. Key findings showed a +10.5% increase in prescribing appropriateness, along with a dramatic savings of $550/bed/year, through reductions in antimicrobial use and C. difficile infections. We recently interviewed the ASP leads at Eastern Health to gain their insights on the findings.
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Insights into using an ESBL Prediction Score in Firstline
An Interview with Joseph Kohn, PharmD, BCPS, Prisma Health
Critical Care Clinical Pharmacist
Coordinator, PGY1 Pharmacy Practice ResidencyESBL prediction scores can help get a patient on the most appropriate therapy sooner, even several days before an ESBL has been identified. We recently interviewed Joseph Kohn, Antibiotic Stewardship and Support Team System Coordinator at Prisma Health to learn more about ESBL and gain insights on using an ESBL prediction score in the Firstline app.
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Imagine a world where Knowledge moves faster than disease
Firstline TeamThe pandemic has shown how easily our knowledge systems and processes can be overwhelmed by the speed and complexity of infectious diseases. To confront this challenge, over the last year we’ve been working to create tools to help foster collaboration in the ID community. We are pleased to announce the beta launch of Firstline Community - a free platform connecting all infectious disease specialists, to share guidelines, learn from each other and spread trusted knowledge. We need each other more than ever.
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Creating a culture of Antimicrobial Stewardship
An Interview with Kyle Massey, PharmD, Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Co-Director, Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical CenterAntimicrobial Stewardship programs are charged with the mission to improve patient outcomes. We recently spoke with Kyle Massey, Co-Director of the ASP at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, to learn more about how creating a culture for Antimicrobial Stewardship has resulted in significant reduction in DOTs. He shares his insights on how to motivate and educate providers, as well as how to continue to advance an already successful program.
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Firstline: The new name for Spectrum
Firstline TeamOur service is now used by hundreds of hospital clients around the world. A more distinctive identity is needed to distinguish us as we continue to grow, and extend our clinical guidance capabilities. The name Firstline better supports our role as being the go-to source for delivering your hospital's preferred clinical guidance.
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Beneficial Outcomes of Antimicrobial Stewardship
Dr. Mira Maximos, PharmD, MSc, ACPRAntimicrobial Stewardship reduces inappropriate antimicrobial use and focuses on improving patient outcomes while combatting antimicrobial resistance. ID/ASP Pharmacist, Mira Maximos, shares different strategies to help your practice improve outcomes and reduce adverse effects associated with antimicrobials.
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What is Antimicrobial Stewardship and why is it so important?
Dr. Mira Maximos, PharmD, MSc, ACPRInsights on antimicrobial stewardship goals around the world, beneficial outcomes of stewardship and great resources to help advance your ASP program.
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Changing Prescribing Behavior: Using ever evolving guidelines as a conversation with providers
An interview with Dr. Nicole Le Saux MD FRCP(C) Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)Antimicrobial Stewardship programs work tirelessly to change prescribing behavior amongst their providers. Sometimes it’s an uphill battle. We spoke with Pediatric ASP team lead, Dr. Nicole Le Saux, to get her insights on how she is able to change prescribing behavior by evolving her guidelines as part of a conversation with her providers.
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How Can Collaboration Advance My Antimicrobial Stewardship Program?
Firstline TeamIntroducing our newest tool: Community Content Library. This software helps power your antimicrobial stewardship program and save you time. Community Content allows you to easily browse, copy and adapt guidelines from all the thousands of vetted clinical guidelines housed in Firstline, created by the many hospitals we support.
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Antimicrobial Stewardship and Penicillin Allergy De-Labeling
An interview with Dr. Tiffany Wong MD, FRCPC, and Dr. Chelsea Elwood B.M.ScH, M.Sc, MD, FRCSC, BC Women's & Children's HospitalWe recently interviewed Dr. Tiffany Wong and Dr. Chelsea Elwood, both of BC Women's and Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada to gain insights on this stewardship challenge and learn more about how they are using Firstline as an intervention tool to address it.
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Vaccine Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT): A Brief Evidence Review
Mira Maximos, PharmD, MSc, ACPRVITT type blood clots are a rare adverse event following administration of COVID-19 vaccines that use the adenoviral vector including the AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD as well as the Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
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Building a Successful Antimicrobial Stewardship Program
An Interview with Shaqil Peermohamed, MD FRCPC, Saskatchewan Health AuthorityThe keys to building a great antimicrobial stewardship program - an interview with Dr. Shaqil Peermohamed.
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The AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine and Thrombosis: What You Should Know
Dr. Kimberley Gauthier, PhD; Dr. Amir Imani, PharmD; Dr. Krishana Sankar, PhD; Dr. Mira Maximos, PharmD, MSc, ACPRCurrently, there are no specific risk factors, such as age, gender or previous medical history of clotting disorders, identified for the observed rare events. There is still no proven causal link with the vaccine; however, further analysis is ongoing.
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How to Answer the Question “Which COVID-19 Vaccine should I get?”
Dr. Mira Maximos, PharmD, MSc, ACPR; Dr. Krishana Sankar, PhD; Dr. Kimberley Gauthier, PhD; Ms. Corri Levine, MSc; Ms. Sabina Vohra-Miller, MScAmongst the excitement about the public rollout of these vaccines, an important question is being asked by those looking to be vaccinated: “Which vaccine should I get?”
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Introducing the Firstline Blog
Firstline TeamWe are excited to introduce our new blog where we will share up to date evidence, clinical perspectives and best practices in Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship.
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