In this webinar, Dr. Becky Winslow, infectious disease clinical scientist, details urinary tract infections’ incidence and impacts; the standard urine culture’s (SUC) technical challenges identifying slow-growing, fastidious, nonaerobic, and most gram-positive microorganisms; polymerase chain reaction’s (PCR) technical advantages identifying the same challenging to grow microorganisms; and the differences between the patient’s urinary tract infection diagnosis and treatment journey when a prescriber uses the standard urine culture as compared to the prescriber using polymerase chain reaction testing to identify and treat the patient. She also explains how PCR-guided antimicrobial sensitivity testing (AST) is more accurate and comprehensive than standard urine culture-guided antimicrobial sensitivity testing and, lastly, why diagnostic stewardship is so critical to antimicrobial stewardship, which is a tool to help reduce the antimicrobial resistance crisis researchers project will exceed the opioid crises in terms of patient morbidity and mortality. Dr Shanmugam will discuss the best practices for validating a multiplex PCR based assay for infectious disease.
 
Learning Objectives:

1. Discuss the Impact of Urinary Tract Infections.

2. Describe the Technical Challenges of Standard Urine Culture (SUC) in Identifying Uropathogens.

3. Describe the Technical Advantages of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Testing in Identifying Uropathogens

4. Explain differences in the Patient Journey: SUC versus PCR.