title: Antimicrobial stewardship programs - cost-minimizing or cost-effective?
abstract: Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are aimed to improve patient care and health care outcomes. It is encouraging to find ASP interventions to be cost-saving in many cost-minimization analyses in literature. Nevertheless, the cost-effectiveness of ASP interventions, measured in cost per quality-adjusted life-years, is less well-established. This Editorial aims to explore the barriers in assessing clinical effectiveness of ASPs and provide suggestions to conduct cost-effectiveness analysis of ASPs.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong , Shatin, NT , Hong Kong joyceyou@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: You
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000191:economics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics; D003363:Cost Control; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D063487:Prescription Drug Misuse / Q000191:economics; D016730:Program Development; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000191:economics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: antimicrobial stewardship program; cost-effective; cost-minimizing; mult-drug resistance