SIGoVA: Pushing Antimicrobial Stewardship Forward in Virginia

With Drs. Lee, Collins and Bucheit
(founding members of SIGoVA). 

I had the great opportunity to present today on Antimicrobial Stewardship (AS) at the Virginia Society of Health-System Pharmacists' Spring Conference. My talk was given in the context of several hours of talks and a panel discussion designed to raise awareness about AS and to promote a regional AS interest group that was created over the past year: the Stewardship Interest Group of Virginia (SIGoVA).

My talk focused on why AS is so important (the problem of antibiotic resistance and our dwindling arsenal of antibiotics) and current best strategies in AS practice as well as key challenges facing AS practitioners today.

The SIGoVA group was created to provide a forum for

Antimicrobial stewardship panel participants 

people in an around Virginia to discuss issues surrounding antibiotic resistance, stewardship and to share information and best practices.

You can find out more about the problem of antibiotic resistance here; you can find out more about antibiotic stewardship here. To find out more about SIGoVA please visit our website.

As the 'pipeline' of new antibiotics for key multi-drug resistant organisms has essentially run dry, it is now more important than ever that we preserve the antibiotics we have and prevent infections wherever possible. Groups such as SIGoVA can help facilitate AS by sharing knowledge, experience and ideas.