Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Major update to antibiotic guidelines released Degree of recognition National Media name/outlet InSight Pluse Media type Web Country/Territory Australia Date 22/04/25 Description After six years, the Therapeutic Guidelines have released an “unprecedented” update to the antibiotic guidelines, covering several infections commonly treated in primary care...
One of the biggest individual changes is the update for cystitis, according to Professor Mark Morgan, Chair of Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Expert Committee – Quality Care.
“The biggest impact as an individual example is the recommendation to use nitrofurantoin as a first choice in uncomplicated urinary tract infections, rather than trimethoprim because of the resistance patterns,” he said...
Professor Morgan would like to see the guidelines be centrally funded rather than through a paid model.
“I think good Australian clinical practice guidelines are a piece of health infrastructure. In the scheme of things, not that expensive to be funded by the taxpayer, for the taxpayer to benefit from.
“I think guidelines should be funded centrally, rather than reliance on subscription fees or specialist college membership fees in order to drive guideline production,” he said.
How technology can play a part
Regardless of what changes come, the way doctors research clinical information will change. Professor Morgan highlighted that guidelines are becoming too large and updated too frequently to be memorised.
“I think there’s a need for all of us as clinicians to get used to looking things up, rather than relying on fallible memories to know how to treat particular conditions.
“So that begs the question, how do we access the information quickly and efficiently at the point of care?”
Technology should help clinicians access this information.
“I’d very much like to see research conducted on whether the transition to AI scribes for writing progress notes can be leveraged to provide snippets of clinical practice guidelines at the right moment in care, based on the conversation that’s happening in the room,” Professor Morgan suggested.
He’s been involved in a system (called Primary Sense) that provides real-time computer decision support based on algorithms. It produces an alert at the time of prescribing to help doctors make prescribing decisions.
“We know that has quite a profound effect on the decisions that are made by the doctor when there’s a potential of unsafe prescribing about to happen.
“Using a similar approach, not just for unsafe prescribing, but to guide prescribing choices for something that has become quite complicated and might need to be changed on a fairly regular basis as resistance patterns change,” he suggested.
“If the person is coming in with a cough or urine infection symptoms, you would like the system to go to the therapeutic guidelines and pull out the relevant paragraph and present it on-screen to assist with clinicians and their patients, making evidence-based, informed choices of treatments,” he said.
The goal would be to give clinicians more time with the patient so they can make the best decision they can.
“The system doesn’t encourage us to have the time to do things to the highest standard that we’d like to…
“It all takes time, and time is always at a premium in health care,” Professor Morgan concluded.Producer/Author Caitlin Wrigth URL https://insightplus.mja.com.au/2025/15/major-update-to-antibiotic-guidelines-released/ Persons Mark Morgan