SAS and bioMérieux join forces to fight antimicrobial resistance

COVID-19 pandemic accelerating global health crisis caused by antibiotic overuse and misuse

bioMérieux, a world leader in in vitro diagnostic solutions for infectious disease, has partnered with global analytics leader SAS to help combat antimicrobial resistance. As professionals from around the world gather to discuss health analytics and technology at the HIMSS annual conference this week, the companies announced the development of a pioneering analytics solution to arm frontline clinicians with real-time health data for better, faster infection treatment.

The new software-as-a-service offering, BIOMÉRIEUX CLARION™, connects the myriad of health care data inside US hospitals and reference laboratories to provide critical insights to battle public health threats. The innovative solution tracks antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria and quickly produces data dashboards on SAS^® Viya^® to empower more informed clinical decision making. The partnership is rooted in the medical community’s ongoing fight against antimicrobial resistance and the goal to activate and support continuous improvement within antimicrobial stewardship programs. 

“Health care providers and clinical laboratory scientists rely on real-time, clinical data, not anecdotes, to render optimal decisions,” said John Hurst, PharmD, BCIDP, Senior Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship for the US at bioMérieux. “CLARION, powered by SAS, revolutionizes antimicrobial stewardship and transforms the antibiogram to be automated and dynamic, providing up-to-date information.”

Antibiotic misuse – including over-prescribing and inaccurate prescribing – causes bacteria and fungi to evolve and become resistant to treatment, leading to 2.8 million infections and more than 35,000 deaths annually in the US. Antibiotic usage has increased during the pandemic due to resources deployed away from antimicrobial stewardship and preemptive antibiotic use in COVID-19 patients. To monitor antibiotic effectiveness and infection response, hospitals typically rely on a standard antibiogram, published once a year with only general information about bacterial pathogens. The static and retrospective nature of this standard report increases the risk a prescriber misses current trends in AMR and potentially prescribes an inappropriate antibiotic.  

“As diagnostic technologies have evolved over the past 20 years, antimicrobial practices in hospitals have largely remained the same,” said Steve Kearney, PharmD, Medical Director at SAS. “The next-level technology of CLARION takes advantage of the advanced data management, analytics and data visualization capabilities of SAS Viya to provide the medical community insights that were never possible before.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all US hospitals develop an antimicrobial stewardship program to help eliminate drug-resistant superbugs and improve patient health outcomes. The CLARION advanced analytics software provides critical lab and clinical data across departments, processes, and vendors, including regional surveillance of multidrug-resistant organisms, customizable alerts for antibiotic utilization and proof points for federally mandated antimicrobial stewardship program performance elements. The solution’s advanced antibiograms personalize antimicrobial therapy decision making for patients with data that is specific to a hospital system – even a particular unit or floor in a hospital – and the unique characteristics of a patient.

“CLARION allows me to go beyond any previous attempts at data collection and presentation and deliver insights that have been locked away in lab, pharmacy and EMR systems,” said Mike Broyles, PharmD, Director of Pharmacy and Laboratory Services at St. Bernards Five Rivers Medical Center in Arkansas. “I can get what I need without giving months of my life to writing special queries and poring through charts. We create antibiograms in three clicks when it previously took three months.”

Source: SAS media announcement