Renuka Gadde, Vice President of BD Global Health, announced last week the launch of new tools to address the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance (when bacteria or fungus becomes resistant to treatment with antibiotics, antifungals or other antimicrobial medications, resulting in these drugs becoming ineffective).

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for AMR

BD Global Health partnered with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) to develop a first of its kind Massive Open Online Course on the role of diagnostics in AMR, in order to help educate care providers like physicians, laboratorians, and medical school students. The course is comprised of 6-modules – to be completed ideally within 6 weeks – consisting of videos, case studies, news articles and lectures. The course was created with the assistance of an advisory panel of 16 leading experts from 11 countries. At last week’s BD Global Health annual summit, participants had an opportunity to explore the MOOC in real time.  Country officials from the Philippines, Africa and India expressed eagerness to roll out the course in their respective countries. Successful participants will be awarded a joint certification from LSHTM and their country institute, funded by BD.

AMR Score Card

BD Global Health partnered with the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) to develop an AMR Scorecard to support stepwise lab quality improvement for AMR diagnostics and stewardship. The Scorecard was piloted in Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Vietnam, where the feedback from the field was overwhelmingly positive. The Scorecard was designed to help identify gaps in a lab and support identification of improvement areas. Coupled with the MOOC and lab training curriculum that BD Global Health has developed, this Scorecard enables BD to work in a spirit of true partnership with labs to help strengthen quality systems for AMR. The Scorecard is expected to launch in Africa this June, followed by additional countries, such as India and Vietnam, in the coming months.

KINGA (Swahili): (verb) to protect, or prevent

And to promote healthcare worker safety, BD Global Health has established a partnership with PEPFAR and CDC to upgrade clinical practice in infusion, addressing infusion prevention and control. The partnership is called KINGA, which is Swahili for “protect”.  The World Health Organization reports that among 35 million healthcare workers, there are about 3 million occupational exposures to blood or other bodily fluids that occur every year.

As part of this partnership, CDC and mHealth Kenya have developed C4C (Care for the Carer) a mobile app built using the EPINet surveillance system through which healthcare workers can report needlestick injuries with a simple tap on a phone. The C4C app has the capability to generate heat maps of the country showing locations where needlestick injuries occur as well as follow users who have reported a sharps injury through a short message service to remind them to continue PEP treatment (a short-term antiretroviral treatment to reduce the likelihood of HIV infection after potential exposure).

Additionally, in February-March 2019 BD Global Health recruited and deployed 13 fellows for a period of two weeks to conduct a baseline assessment of current practices and gaps around insertion and care and maintenance of infusions in 9 facilities in Kenya.  Following completion, BD intends to support the facilities with safety engineered devices and training to help improve the standard of care.