Dr. Mark Poznansky Speaks at Tufts University Global Health Seminar

On November 29th Dr. Mark Poznansky spoke to a group of Tufts University students about emerging infectious disease, global health and the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center’s (VIC) contributions to vaccine development. The event, organized by Chloe Boehm, a VIC intern, on behalf of Tufts Timmy Global Health, a group dedicated to alleviating health disparities through their work in Guatemala and in the greater Boston area, brought together a diverse group of Tufts students, largely representing the community health and biology departments.

The interdisciplinary nature of the event led to a discussion of larger topics within global health, including the effect of climate change on emerging infectious disease and the increasing range of Aedis aegypti mosquito, an important vector in the spread of Dengue and Zika.

As Dr. Poznansky delineated VIC’s innovative VaxCelerate program, many students were impressed with the coordination and collaborative nature of VIC’s rapid vaccine development initiative. Second year undergraduate Evan Cook remarked, “Giving up personal victory is essential when trying to effectively and efficiently find therapies to aid the general public.” Indeed, the VaxCelerate model relies on ‘team science’ and interdisciplinary collaboration to develop vaccines within a drastically reduced time frame. The exciting concept of providing ‘vaccines on demand’ also shows VIC’s commitment to embracing novel technologies for research. A discussion of the progression of immunological research, from the development of FACS to the more recent CyTOF, cemented VIC as a pioneer in the early adoption of biomedical technologies.

The translational approach to research and development employed by VIC occupies a unique niche, one that has resulted in the development of clinically relevant therapies and vaccines. This lesson of collaboration and coordination is integral to the development of young scientists and health professionals, and will continue to guide translational research for years to come.

Update On The New CDC Guidelines For Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing

As covered in the previous VIC blog post, the UN organized a meeting in September to draw the attention of health care providers, researchers, and politicians to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance throughout the world. On November 11th, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines to limit unnecessary prescriptions for antibiotics and to promote more responsible prescribing patterns in outpatient facilities. The Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship outline four pillars that outpatient health care providers should adapt their practice around including commitment, action for policy and practice, tracking and reporting, and education and expertise. The CDC proposed the new pillars in an effort to encourage physicians to curb their excessive antibiotic prescribing practices, which could limit the transmission of antibiotic-resistant infections and effectively decrease the associated costs of medical treatment.

The CDC developed the new guidelines in response to recent reports that highlighted the majority of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions as being for viral infections and the tendency of providers to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics for common bacterial infections. The reports revealed areas of potential improvement to physicians and researchers and presented the problem of antibiotic resistance as largely preventable through commitment to change in outpatient facilities. In order to improve, the CDC suggests that outpatient practices monitor the antibiotic prescribing history of its physicians and provide each clinician with data on their performance relative to his or her coworkers. The governmental guidelines also encourage outpatient practices to educate physicians about proper antibiotic prescribing and clinicians to spend more time with patients to clearly explain when antibiotics are and are not necessary.

The guidelines are easily adaptable and offer outpatient facilities a great deal of flexibility in how they choose to implement and enforce certain provisions from the report. In addition, the guidelines offer a clear evidence-based pathway for clinicians to limit the spread of antibiotic-resistant infections, preventing potential deaths and slowing the rise in health care costs.

Written by: Ben Maxner

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/11/cdc-issues-roadmap-guide-outpatient-antibiotic-prescribing