A multidisciplinary team at Duke University Health System has received a $1 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to improve antibiotic prescribing practices for children with respiratory tract infections.
The project will provide education and guidance for both prescribers and families throughout the health system about the treatment of upper respiratory infections, including sinus infections, strep throat and pneumonia.
“Strengthening the outpatient pediatric stewardship presence at Duke and Duke-affiliated clinics is an important quality and practice improvement need and a health system priority,” said the project’s principal investigator, Michael J. Smith, M.D., professor in the Department of Pediatrics and chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Duke University School of Medicine.
“This award provides the needed infrastructure to implement multiple evidence-based strategies that have been shown to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing to children,” Smith said.
This project is part of a larger PCORI initiative, -- the Health Systems Implementation Initiative -- that seeks to incorporate evidence-based practices into clinical practice. An earlier PCORI-funded study found that narrow-spectrum antibiotics such as amoxicillin work just as well as broad spectrum ones for respiratory ailments and have many fewer side effects.