title: Real-time validation and presentation of the cumulative antibiogram and implications of presenting a standard format using a novel in-house software: ABSOFT.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antibiograms must use a standard format to present microbiologic data.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  When antibacterials are selected for the treatment of infections, knowledge of the locally most likely causative organisms and the prevalence of resistant pathogens to antibacterial agents are essential. This involves generating a cumulative antibiogram. We designed an in-house novel software to prepare our antibiogram, validate data, and analyze results and assessed the performance of this technology. It should be noted that analysis of specific antibiotic resistance patterns were not a focus of this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted at Al Khor Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, a 110-bed acute care hospital that serves patients in the northern area of Qatar. Positive microbiology cultures excluding surveillance samples, isolated in the microbiology laboratory from January 2008 to December 2008, were entered into an in-house software, ABSOFT, designed by one of the authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The software produced the antibiogram in a fixed format. Epidemiologic data and comparison of our data to the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance benchmark for multidrug-resistant organism distribution were also presented real time. Automatic color-coded results in tabular format were printed instantaneously without errors, thus eliminating the need to be reviewed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The paper highlights real-time validation and presentation of the cumulative antibiogram, additionally suggesting the format for reporting using a novel in-house software ABSOFT. This technology provided us an accurate, simple, cost-effective solution to present validated data real-time in a transparent and consistent manner. To our knowledge to date, no uniform format has been recommended for the presentation of cumulative antibiograms.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory Medicine and Pathology-Al Khor, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar. drgodwin@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Godwin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Shaherudeen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Badarudeen
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Godwin
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000382:microbiology*; D056808:Biostatistics / Q000379:methods; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests / Q000592:standards; D011780:Qatar; D012984:Software; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents