The global fight against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) took center stage on 26 September 2024, at the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AMR (UN Headquarters, New York, USA). This silent pandemic brought world leaders together for the second time to confront AMR and laid out a roadmap of political commitments.

drive-AMS and EU-JAMRAI2, the second phase of the European Joint Action on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and Healthcare-Associated Infections, are aligning their efforts, recognizing that both initiatives share crucial goals. EU-JAMRAI2 is dedicated to assisting EU Member States in implementing targeted actions against AMR, with the ultimate goal of safeguarding public health on the continent.

As part of drive-AMS, the team at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, is expanding their SPICE Expert Registry to Greece, Lithuania, Romania and Portugal. SPICE stands for Specialized Programme for Infectious Disease Care Everywhere

From 18 to 24 November, join us and the global community in the WHO World Antibiotic Awareness Week (WAAW). This annual campaign raises awareness about AMR and promotes best practices to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.

The drive-AMS methodology has successfully expanded beyond Europe, reaching both Africa and Asia. After having been implemented in Tanzania, drive-AMS’s distinctive approach, which combines antimicrobial use measurement, implementation support, and behavioural change, is now also active in Indonesia.

Dr. Birutė Zablockienė is part of the core drive-AMS team implementing antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in Lithuania. In this interview, she shares insights into her work on combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the challenges her team faces in ensuring appropriate antimicrobial use across multiple hospital departments.

In this interview, Professor Emmanuel Roilides, the country lead for the drive-AMS project in Greece, discusses his commitment to combating antimicrobial resistance. He shares the significant progress made by the Greek drive-AMS network in promoting antibiotic stewardship across hospitals, highlighting the challenges and successes encountered along the way. Professor Roilides also outlines the future goals of expanding the network and gaining broader state recognition to enhance the fight against resistant infections.

We are proud to announce that drive-AMS has been highlighted in the recent policy brief by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, under the section “Boosting implementation of effective strategies to combat AMR.”

In this interview, Mihaela Lupse, professor in infectious diseases and lead of the Romanian drive-AMS network, sheds light on the situation in her country. She elaborates on the ongoing efforts in fighting AMR and establishing the project in Romania.

In this interview, Dr. Raquel Duro, member of the Portuguese drive-AMS team, elaborates on her role within the project, the AMS interventions in her hospital and how AMR has affected patients.

The second part of the course dedicated to antimicrobial stewardship, integrated into the European drive-AMS project, recently took place.

It’s the end of our drive-AMS in-country trainings! From 15 until 18 May, the final course took place in Birštonas, Lithuania, organised by dr. Rolanda Valinteliene from the Institute of Hygiene in Vilnius and her team. The four days included presentations and workshops providing deeper insights into antimicrobial stewardship: basic requirements, objectives, prescribing patterns in Europe, quantity & quality of antimicrobial use, determinants & barriers, behavioural change and more.

Dr. Francisco Almeida from the Infection Prevention and Control and Antimicrobial Resistance Unit (UPCIRA) of São João Hospital, in Porto, Portugal, was awarded with the first prize of the AMS Certificate Programme 2022-2024 from ESCMID. He received the award for a project within the scope of drive-AMS, an antimicrobial stewardship project, with European funding, coordinated in Portugal by São João Hospital and involving 7 more national health units.

From 18 to 21 March, the Romanian drive-AMS team reached a critical milestone as it organized its own in-country training course. Under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Mihaele Lupse, representatives from 8 Romanian hospitals assembled in Cluj for four days of presentations and discussions on all aspects of effective stewardship programs to optimize antibiotic use.

The European drive-AMS project, which São João leads in Portugal, was selected to integrate the 1st phase of the Sustainable Health Pact (PaSSus) 2030, within the scope of the National Health Plan 2030 (PNS), recently launched and promoted by the portuguese General Directorate for the Health (DGS).

In this insightful interview, Dr. Rolanda Valinteliene, Head of the Public Health Technology Centre at the Institute of Hygiene in Vilnius, shares her experiences and challenges in leading efforts against antimicrobial resistance in Lithuania.

In this interview Roxana Dobrota, a member of the Romanian drive-AMS team, shares her insights into her role as clinical pharmacist, the situation around AMR in her country and how this is handled in her hospital.

Another successful in-country training! The Greek team, led by Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Roilides from the General Hospital of Thessaloniki, organised their drive-AMS course from 22 to 24 February. Around 40 participants from 8 different hospitals took part in the training, including infectious diseases specialists, pharmacists, nurses, microbiologists and paediatricians.

Meet Ana Reis, the health psychologist who joined the Portuguese drive-AMS team. Ana elaborates on her approach to behavioural change, a key pillar of effective antimicrobial stewardship programmes.

From 24 to 26 January 2024, Portugal hosted the first of four in-country trainings on the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in hospitals.This successful 3-days course was organised by Dr. José Artur Paiva from the São João University Hospital and 14 faculty members from Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. Central throughout this training was inserting implementation science in hospital AMS programs.

Global-PPS is organising an online training on Thursday 18 January, which will be focussed on their inpatient methodology.

One year ago, the drive-AMS project was established. In this brief overview, we present the most significant milestones that have been reached in the course of its first year.

In this interview, Dr. Elias Iosifidis, member of the drive-AMS team in Greece, sheds his light on the daily challenges faced, emphasizing the importance of collaborative efforts in the battle against AMR.

World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (WAAW) is celebrated annually from 18 to 24 November. Dedicated to raising awareness about global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and promoting best practices, this event provides an excellent opportunity to showcase drive-AMS's unique approach to enhancing appropriate antimicrobial prescribing through the implementation of sustainable antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Dr. José-Artur Paiva is director of the Intensive Care Medicine Department at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário Sao Joao in Portugal. In this interview, he covers critical insights into the fight against antimicrobial resistance and the instrumental role of the drive-AMS project. Dr. Paiva's experiences and future plans underscore the importance of collaborative efforts and proactive strategies in combating this global health challenge.

Read our interview with Dr. Jeroen Schouten, intensivist at Radboud University Medical Center and project lead of drive-AMS. Jeroen discusses the work that has been done during the first months of the project, essential lessons learned and his future goals for drive-AMS.

On 6 June 2023, country leads of the drive-AMS partner institutions held an online meeting to discuss the progress of the project and any challenges faced during the first 6 months of implementation.

Last week, drive-AMS organised a Training of Trainers Course in Nijmegen, hosted by Radboudumc. The course combined their Dutch AMS Masterclass and the Global-PPS tool and expertise. The future trainers were taught how to guide professionals and policy makers through developing and implementing a successful Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in their hospital, healthcare system, region or even country.

On the 1st of November 2022, Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc) and University of Antwerp joined forces to launch drive-AMS, a new project funded under the EU4Health Programme. This project aims to intensify antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes across the European Union by improving prudent antimicrobial use (AMU) and strengthening AMU surveillance, which are both key priorities of the EU One Health Action Plan on AMR.