Antimicrobial Stewardship Quotes & Slogans

---

~ ANTIMICROBIAL STEWARDSHIP QUOTES ~

“You have to teach early and often… because education has the half-life of a beta-lactam”

-Brandion Dionne, Pharm.D., BCPS-AQ ID, AAHIVP, Antimicrobial Stewardship & Infectious Diseases Pharmacist

“Antibiotics are uniquely societal drugs because individual use effects others in the community and environment.” -Dr. Stuart Levy,  President of the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics

“If a patient is dead, it does not matter if you have prevented rejection of the transplanted organ.” -Todd Lee, MD, McGill University

“A disease outbreak anywhere is a risk everywhere.” -Tom Frieden, MD, Former Director U.S. CDC

“If we use antibiotics when not needed, we may not have them when they are most needed.”  -Tom Frieden, MD, Former Director U.S. CDC

“Even when there isn’t a fire, you’re using a fire extinguisher. You bought it, you stored it, and you know it will work. Antibiotics are to infections as fire extinguishers are to fires.” -John Rex, MD, Chief Medical Officer, F2G Ltd

“Antibiotics are among the most potent of all anxiolytics – for prescribers.” -Brad Spellberg, MD, CMO at LAC & USC Medical Center

“Antibiotic stewardship is like prescribing methadone-equivalent to antibiotic-addicted providers.” -Brad Spellberg, MD, CMO at LAC & USC Medical Center

“Superbugs…these are our babies…now they have body piercings and anger” -House, TV Show

“Rifampin is like Robin, not Batman. Should not fight alone.” -Christopher Bland, PharmD, Clinical Associate Professor at University of Georgia College of Pharmacy

“An ID pharmacist is an ID attending’s attending” -Darcey Wooten, MD; Washington University in St. Louis, School of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division

“ID is a puzzle with different solutions. If you know which drugs kill which organisms and where they distribute in the body, you can design a regimen to treat anything.” -Jason Gallagher, Pharm.D., FCCP, FIDSA, BCPS, Clinical Professor at Temple University School of Pharmacy

“Infectious diseases – they keep changing, we keep learning.” -Jason Gallagher, Pharm.D., FCCP, FIDSA, BCPS, Clinical Professor at Temple University School of Pharmacy

“ASP steers the ship but we need all hands on deck to complete the journey.” -Debra Goff, Pharm.D., Professor of Clinical Pharmacy Practice and Science at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

“Antibiotic use is not a free ride, it carries a lot of risk.” -Paul Sax, MD, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

“It’s not about using less antibiotics. It’s about using the right antibiotic for the right diagnosis and for the right duration of time.” -Susan Bleasdale, M.D., Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Control at University of Iowa Health

“Giving antibiotics to your patient is like giving them water from a well with a limited supply. You better make sure they need it, because there are thousands/millions lined up behind them with the same symptoms.” -Nicholas Torney, Pharm.D., ID/ASP Pharmacist

“Antibiotics for surgery are like condoms for sex: only good just before and during the act.” -Andrew Morris, M.D.

“The best antibiotics are a scalpel and a drainage needle. Don’t try to replace a surgeon or interventional radiologist with an antibiotic.” Andrew Morris, M.D., Infectious Diseases Physician

“Antibiotics available for people who do not know what they are doing should be those that can do the least harm.” -Dr. Mark Crislip, Chief of Infectious Diseases at Legacy Health Hospital System

“Some antibiotic stewardship is better than none” -Jason Newland, MD, Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician

“Antibiotics do not raise the dead.” -Marc Scheetz, Pharm.D, M.SC., BCPS, Director of the Pharmacometric Center of Excellence at Midwestern University

“The issue is not the route of administration but rather the drug levels achieved in the bloodstream and tissues.” -Daniel Musher, M.D.

“By finding new and different ways to attack infectious bacteria, we’re developing smarter and more effective ways to solve this problem of antibiotic resistance.” -Pranita Tamma, MD, Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University

“The basic aim is that people should only get antibiotics when they need them, and that doctors prescribe the appropriate ones. This is awfully easy to say, and a lot more difficult to do.” -Dr. David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology

“A hallmark of academia SHOULD be to recognize when it is time to retire an orthodoxy as new data emerges.” -Dr. Edmondo Robinson, Moffitt Cancer Center

“Every antibiotic we count on now will be destroyed or significantly impaired by resistance.” -Kevin Outterson, BS, JD, LLM, Executive Director of CARB-X at Boston University

“What is endocarditis, truly, if not an enthusiastic bacteremia.” -Nico Cortes, MD, Associate Medical Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at University of Nebraska Medical Center

“The most expensive antibiotic is the one that does not work.” – David Nicolau, PharmD, FCCP, FIDSA, Director, Center for Anti-Infective Research and Development at Hartford Hopsital

“Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn’t know they were going to get.” -Unknown

“There are two types of people: those that love ID and those that don’t know about ID yet.” -Unknown

“When it comes to infectious diseases and antibiotics, there is only do or do not, there is no try.” -Unknown

“Antibiotics kill bacteria, not your anxiety. Stop the ‘just-in-case’ indications.” -Unknown

“Fever is not a sign of ceftriaxone deficiency.” -Unknown

“Broad spectrum antibiotics are not a substitute for rational thought.” -Unknown

“You know why the are called breakpoints? Because we make a point to break them all the time.” -Monica Mahoney, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP, FCCP, FIDSA

“To learn how to use antibiotics, one must first learn how not to use antibiotics.” -Unknown

“Do not be the first to use an antibiotic, because you risk toxicity. Do not be the last to use an antibiotic, because you risk efficacy.” –Unknown

“Antimicrobial stewardship is a team game with the patient at the center and it’s our teamwork that makes the dream work.” -Unknown

“When prescribing antibiotics, ‘Start Smart – Then Focus’; use the right drug at the right time at the right dose for the right duration.” -Unknown

“The answer to every question in ID is the same. It depends!” -Unknown

“Dead bugs don’t mutate” -Unknown

“The bug does not know how the drug gets there” [Referring to IV to PO] -Unknown

JUST-FOR-FUN

“Vancomycin for your mother, metronidazole for your mother-in-law” -Dr. Sherwood Gorbach, Tufts University School of Medicine

“If you whisper ‘rifampin’ at the tomb of a dead pharmacist, their corpse will reanimate” -Dr. Paul Lentos, Duke Medicine