title: The Added Cost of Rapid Diagnostic Testing and Active Antimicrobial Stewardship: Is It Worth It?
abstract: Rapid diagnostic testing reduces the turnaround time for pathogen identification in the clinical microbiology laboratory, but the impact on patient care and hospital costs is a matter of speculation. Patel et al. (J. Clin. Microbiol. 55:60-67, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01452-16) investigate the impact of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in conjunction with active antimicrobial stewardship to determine if implementation is indeed worth the added costs.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pathology and Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern and Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Children's Health, Dallas, Texas, USA erin.mcelvania@childrens.com.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McElvania TeKippe
mesh_terms: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D006801:Humans; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000191:economics*
chemical_list: D000890:Anti-Infective Agents