The BIVDA Infectious Disease Working party met at the BIVDA offices on 6 August. The meeting opened with a review of the NHSE 5 year AMR Action plan which was delivered by Dr Jayne Ellis. There was a great question and answer section that followed, and Helen requested that evidence from members around their products that can be used in the AMR space would be welcome to assist with the above strategy and her stakeholder discussions moving forward.
Helen then provided an update to members around the Lord Darzi review where he has launched a call for evidence to gather data, intelligence and analysis to inform his independent investigation into the performance of the NHS. The consultation seeks to draw on an evidence base and expertise from across patient groups, academia, think tanks and the charitable sector, as well as from engaging directly with NHS staff.
This is a significant opportunity to champion the role of diagnostics and specifically called out as an area of interest is Infectious disease (including influenza, COVID-19 and sexually transmitted illnesses. Other areas include, rare diseases, cancer, acute and community health (including waiting lists). The deadline for submitting evidence has now closed.
The external speaker for this meeting was Dr Stefania Vergnano, Paediatric Infectious Diseases Consultant, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. Her talk was titled “Neonatal and Paediatric infections – the Diagnostic Gap” and she gave an immensely interesting overview of the issues around AMR in paediatrics, especially neonates. She is a clear advocate for children as she shared that they seem to be hugely underserved and that diagnosis is not as clear as it is in adults, particularly with neonates. Dr Vergnano advises that manufacturers do more work looking at the neonatal and paediatric population and recommended that the UK Paediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship group (UK-PAS) would be a good organisation to liaise with regarding studies and method validation.
The final section of the meeting reviewed feedback gathered from members around their experiences and challenges with acquiring patient samples for internal studies, method development and validation. A questionnaire to gather information was sent out prior to the meeting and the general conclusion is that there is a need for samples for many purposes (product development, validation, PMS) and there is a large diversity requirement amongst the IDWP members. The consensus was that an output from the group could be creating a directory of all sites that are known to supply samples, be these biobanks, NHS or other private entities. BIVDA could also consider developing a policy around ethics and that if members need access to samples, this is the code that would be followed. This could also include consensus around what is needed for product validation, i.e. sample characterisation, numbers of samples and matrix. Getting samples referenced, and access to patient outcome data were highlighted as additional requirements.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and the date for the next meeting is Wednesday 13 November 2024 at the BIVDA office. If you are not currently signed up for the Infectious Disease Working Party, please let Dawn and I know, and we can add you to the group.
