Dr. Paul Spearman, President-elect of PIDS, gave a presentation to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) at HHS headquarters in Washington DC on January 25th. PACCARB is advisory to the administration, and is charged with gathering input and providing policy recommendations to fight antimicrobial resistance, and is chaired by Dr. Martin Blaser of NYU. Other organizations presenting in this public session included SHEA, APIC, IDSA, and ACGME. The focus of the session PIDS was asked to participate in was on workforce and education issues in Infection Prevention. As suggested by several of our PIDS leaders who work in this area, Dr. Spearman provided a pediatric-focused viewpoint of the unique aspects of infection prevention in the pediatric hospital and the pediatric ambulatory setting. He emphasized the need for infection prevention research that includes infants and children, and urged greater participation of pediatric ID specialists in formulating guidelines in this area. The need to maintain a strong pipeline of pediatric ID specialists who are trained in infection prevention and are poised to become leaders both locally and nationally was also emphasized. Council members were very engaged in this discussion, and are likely to include these pediatric ID-specific topics in their report to the President.
To view an archived webcast and minutes from the PACCARB meeting, please visit https://www.hhs.gov/ash/advisory-committees/paccarb/meetings/upcoming-meetings/january-25-2017-public-meeting/index.html.
