Addressing health inequities by strengthening antibiotic stewardship
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 10 a.m. EDT
The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges and opportunities to improve antibiotic use and sustain antibiotic stewardship, or efforts to improve antibiotic use and prescribing, including through reducing and eliminating health disparities. Health disparities are closely linked with social, economic, and/or environmental disadvantages or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion. These disparities could be created or exacerbated in locations with fewer resources to allocate to antibiotic stewardship activities, increasing the likelihood of developing side effects or adverse events, such as Clostridioides difficile infection, and contributing to antimicrobial resistance. CDC works with healthcare providers and partners to characterize disparities in antibiotic prescribing and use to identify where opportunities exist to improve the quality of care and equity across all healthcare settings and in all communities.
Moderator:
Dr. Arjun Srinivasan
Deputy Director, Program Improvement, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Arjun Srinivasan, MD, is the Deputy Director for Program Improvement in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion in CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service. Board certified in Infectious Diseases, his primary responsibilities include oversight and coordination of efforts to eliminate healthcare-associated infections and reduce antimicrobial resistance. Before coming to CDC, Dr. Srinivasan was an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he was the founding Director of its Antibiotic Management Program and the associate hospital epidemiologist. Publishing more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals on his research, Dr. Srinivasan’s investigative areas of concentration have included outbreak investigations, infection control, multidrug-resistant gram-negative pathogens, and a current focus on hospital antibiotic stewardship.
Speakers:
Dr. Lauri Hicks
Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Lauri Hicks, DO, is the Director for the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion in CDC’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases and a Captain in the U.S. Public Health Service with more than 17 years at CDC. Dr. Hicks previously served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in CDC’s Respiratory Diseases Branch followed by completing a postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases at Brown University before returning to CDC. Her areas of expertise include antimicrobial resistance, antibiotic stewardship, respiratory diseases, and outbreak response. Dr. Hicks has published more than 150 scientific publications and has guided national antibiotic stewardship policy and guideline development. She has held several leadership positions as part of CDC’s COVID-19 response.
Dr. David Hyun
Project Director, Antibiotic Resistance Project
The Pew Charitable Trusts
David Hyun, MD, directs the Antibiotic Resistance Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts, which supports policies that remove regulatory, economic, and scientific obstacles to the discovery of new antibiotics, and ensures that antibiotics are prescribed only when necessary. Before joining Pew, Dr. Hyun practiced medicine at Children’s National Medical Center, where he developed and co-chaired the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine and completed a fellowship program in pediatric infectious disease at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hyun has published and lectured widely on managing antibiotic use in inpatient and outpatient settings.
Natalia Vargas
Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program Lead, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
Health Resources and Services Administration
Natalia Vargas, MPH, is the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program Lead for the Health Resources & Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP). At FORHP, she provides leadership and oversight of rural hospital quality measurement and improvement activities, collaborating with federal partners to advance FORHP’s efforts to improve health care for rural patients. Vargas is an invited reviewer for the Journal for Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, and an invited subject matter expert for health equity and vulnerable population related topics by organizations such as the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council and XPrize Foundation. Vargas’ work within and outside of the federal government has focused on improving health services for vulnerable and medically underserved populations and expanding how interventions can be evaluated and research capacity of safety net health systems.
Dr. Zanthia Wiley
Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Emory University School of Medicine
Zanthia Wiley, MD, is an Associate Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. At the Hope Clinic, the clinical trials arm of the Emory Vaccine Center, Dr. Wiley serves as a Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit co-investigator, investigator, and principal investigator of multiple clinical trials. Her health equity advocacy at the Hope Clinic includes dedication to ensuring racial and ethnic subject diversity in clinical trials, fostering relationships and developing solid foundations with the community, and serving as a mentor to many Black, Indigenous, and people of color trainees. Prior to her transition to the Hope Clinic, Dr. Wiley served as the Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta. She is a member of the Emory Department of Medicine’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council, and she serves on the Society for Healthcare and Epidemiology of America’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee.
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