Abbott (formerly Alere) – Test Target Treat™

In order to preserve the antibiotics that are currently available we must promote the appropriate use of antibiotics.

The Test Target Treat™ initiative empowers healthcare professionals to make targeted treatment decisions sooner with rapid diagnostics, reducing inappropriate antimicrobial use and the spread of resistance. We hope to create a shift in treatment trends, moving away from the broad over-prescription of antibiotics, which spawned the growing prevalence of serious healthcare-associated infections like MRSA, towards more targeted therapy.

The Test Target Treat campaign was designed to combat antimicrobial resistance by educating healthcare professionals on the importance of using rapid diagnostics to make more targeted treatment decisions and reduce the inappropriate use of antibiotics. The educational content on Test Target Treat was produced by the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics (APUA) through an unrestricted educational grant from Alere (now Abbott).

Test Target Treat has over 60,000 visitors each year to www.TestTargetTreat.com from all regions of the world who have free access to case studies, webinars by experts in the field of AMR and educational materials on Antimicrobial Stewardship. Test Target Treat supports and helps develop educational materials in the field of Antimicrobial Stewardship and appropriate use of antibiotics on an ongoing basis, working with key stakeholders in the area of AMR and stewardship.

One example of such a collaboration is the provision of an unrestricted grant to support the creation and operation of the free online Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Antimicrobial Stewardship. Developed by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and the University of Dundee, this landmark course is the first free, global online course available to all learners across the globe. Designed for healthcare professionals, this six-week course informs healthcare professional about – and empowers them to provide – safe, high-quality antibiotic use. Attendees interact with colleagues globally, to understand what antibiotic resistance means – and why the World Economic Forum has placed it alongside terrorism and climate change on its global risk register.

This course helps healthcare professionals understand what antimicrobial stewardship is and how they can apply it every day. Although the focus is for prescribing in the hospital setting, the skill set can be applied and adapted to other healthcare settings. The intention of the course is to stimulate and encourage further inquiry and learning in this important area. The course was launched in September 2015 and has run multiple times each year. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/antimicrobial-stewardship . In the first 12 months over 30,000 people registered for the course. Recently the MOOC has also been translated into Mandarin.