The viral prescription pad - a mixed methods study to determine the need for and utility of an educational tool for antimicrobial stewardship in primary health care
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Background In order to combat rising rates of antimicrobial resistant infections, it is vital that antimicrobial stewardship become embedded in primary health care (PHC). Despite the high use of antimicrobials in PHC settings, there is a lack of data regarding the integration of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) in non-hospital settings. Our research aimed to determine which antimicrobial stewardship interventions are optimal to introduce into PHC clinics beginning to engage with an ASP, as well as how to optimize those interventions. This work became focused specifically around management of viral upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), as these infections are one of the main sources of inappropriate antibiotic use. Methods This mixed methods study of sequential explanatory design was developed through three research projects over 3 years in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. First, a survey of PHC providers was performed to determine their perceived needs from a PHC-based ASP. From this work, a “viral prescription pad” was developed to provide a tool to help PHC providers engage in patient education regarding appropriate antimicrobial use, specifically for URTIs. Next, interviews were performed with family physicians to discuss their perceived utility of this tool. Finally, we performed a public survey to determine preferences for the medium by which information is received regarding symptom management for viral URTIs. Results The majority of PHC providers responding to the initial survey indicated they were improperly equipped with tools to aid in promoting conversations with patients and providing education about the appropriate use of antimicrobials. Following dissemination of the viral prescription pad and semi-structured interviews with family physicians, the viral prescription pad was deemed to be a useful educational tool. However, about half of the physicians interviewed indicated they did not actually provide a viral prescription to patients when providing advice on symptom management for viral URTIs. When asked about their preferences, 76% of respondents to the public survey indicated they would prefer to receive written or a combination of verbal and written information in this circumstance. Conclusions PHC providers indicated a need for educational tools to promote conversations with patients and provide education about the appropriate use of antimicrobials. Viral prescription pads were regarded by family physicians and patients as useful tools in facilitating discussion on the appropriate use of antimicrobials. PHC providers should exercise caution in opting out of providing written forms of information, as many respondents to the general public survey indicated their preference in receiving both verbal and written information.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.024 | 0.027 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".