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The document emphasizes the need for rapid and accurate diagnostic tests for infectious diseases to improve patient care and combat antimicrobial resistance. It highlights the importance of distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections and the role of infectious diseases physicians in interpreting test results. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) outlines current challenges and recommendations for advancing diagnostic technologies and integrating them into clinical practice.

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Roy Vincent Otieno
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34 views1 page

Med 1

The document emphasizes the need for rapid and accurate diagnostic tests for infectious diseases to improve patient care and combat antimicrobial resistance. It highlights the importance of distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections and the role of infectious diseases physicians in interpreting test results. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) outlines current challenges and recommendations for advancing diagnostic technologies and integrating them into clinical practice.

Uploaded by

Roy Vincent Otieno
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Whether caring for an individual patient with an infectious disease or responding to a worldwide

pandemic, the rapid and accurate establishment of a microbial cause is fundamental to quality care.
Despite dramatic advances in diagnostic technologies, many patients with suspected infections receive
empiric antimicrobial therapy rather than appropriate therapy dictated by the rapid identification of the
infectious agent. The result is overuse of our small inventory of effective antimicrobials, whose numbers
continue to dwindle due to increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance.

New tests are needed that can identify a specific pathogen or at a minimum, distinguish between
bacterial and viral infections, and also provide information on susceptibility to antimicrobial agents.
Tests should be easy to use and provide a rapid result (ideally within an hour) to have a positive impact
on care. Results must be effectively communicated to the healthcare provider or public health
practitioner and may require the interpretive expertise of an infectious diseases physician or clinical
microbiologist. The infectious diseases physician can serve as a bridge between the laboratory and the
healthcare provider to ensure the proper use and interpretation of diagnostic testing. The expertise of
the infectious diseases clinician becomes more important with the advent of newer, more complex
tests. The availability of needed tests will lead to improvements in clinical outcomes for patients,
antimicrobial stewardship, detection and tracking of disease outbreaks, and investigation of unknown
pathogens, both in the United States and globally.

Emerging technologies enable the detection and quantification of pathogen burden with new speed,
sensitivity, and simplicity of use. However, there are significant challenges to the development,
regulatory approval, and clinical integration of diagnostic tests that use these new technologies. The
need for diagnostics that advance clinical care and public health has never been greater, and there is a
critical window of opportunity to harness new technologies to address the greatest unmet needs.

In this Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) policy paper, we review the current diagnostic
landscape, including unmet needs and emerging technologies, and assess the challenges to the
development and clinical integration of improved tests. To fulfill the promise of emerging diagnostics,
IDSA presents recommendations that address a host of identified barriers. Achieving these goals will
require the engagement and coordination of a number of stakeholders, including Congress, funding and
regulatory bodies, public health agencies, the diagnostics industry, healthcare systems, professional
societies, and individual clinicians.

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