Ohio State Receives Award To Improve Antibiotic Delivery, Administration

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Researchers from The Ohio State University College of Medicine recently received a $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to improve delivery and administration of antibiotics to infected patients.

Dr. Courtney Hebert, an assistant professor of biomedical informatics at Ohio State’s College of Medicine, is leading a multi-disciplinary team of experts in infectious diseases, pharmacy, microbiology and biomedical informatics to design methodologies replicable at hospitals across the country, including The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago. 

“The goal of this project is to help physicians choose the best antibiotic to give to hospitalized patients with infections as soon as possible,” Hebert said. 

“It’s important to start an appropriate antibiotic early, before culture results are available. Choosing between antibiotics can be a complicated decision, so we’re developing a method that will help physicians select antibiotics that have the best chance of working for each individual patient,” she said.

Hebert believes this tool will not only be helpful for assigning antibiotics quickly, but it could also reduce antibiotic resistance in hospitals. She said further research projects regarding multi-drug-resistant organisms are possible, based on the success of this design.