Vendors and Clinicians Promote Fighting AMR Through Greater Public Awareness

  

Clinical laboratories have long understood their role in thwarting antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, the public and even some physicians seem naive to the fact that bacteria can evolve to resist antibiotics, thus rendering previously reliable medications ineffective.

At the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine’s (ADLM) 2025 conference, in vitro diagnostics (IVD) manufacturers and software vendors expressed interest in fighting AMR with medical labs by raising more awareness with consumers about the risks involved.

“We are witnessing a global health crisis in the making,” Jennifer Zinn, executive vice president of global clinical operations at IVD company bioMérieux, said during a press briefing at ADLM. “Not enough people are aware of AMR, and they certainly don’t know what to do about it.”

Clinical response to sore throats illustrates the problem

Fighting AMR is an effort mired in clinical confusion. For example, physicians often overprescribe antibiotics to adults and children for strep throat, said John Osiecki, PhD, vice president of North American medical affairs at bioMérieux. Referring to statistics first published in JAMA in 2016, Osiecki noted that 72 percent of adults and 56 percent of children who complain of sore throat receive antibiotics.

However, only 18 percent to 37 percent of those cases are caused by the Streptococcus pyogenes bacteria, which can be treated by antibiotics. This gap illustrates the risk of overprescribing antibiotics in a way that fosters AMR. Antibiotics can’t be used to treat viruses that cause sore throats, such as rhinovirus and influenza.

“Clinical signs and symptoms often overlap from different diseases,” Osiecki told Today’s Clinical Lab.

Diagnostic laboratories can step in here. Lab scientists could flag test results showing viral infections and inform physicians not to use antibiotics needlessly based on the results. But that is not always possible.

“My concern is that the labs have a full plate,” Osiecki said. “They have challenges with resources. So, to provide the level of [AMR] education, it really does require partnership with industry.”

Primary care physicians can also help fight AMR, says Rachel Goodman, MD, a pediatrician at Elm Street Pediatrics in Winnetka, IL. “Patients should be demanding diagnostic testing at the first point of care: the physician’s office,” Goodman said during the ADLM 2025 press briefing.

In that setting, patients can often get test results within 15 minutes on whether an infection is a virus versus bacteria. “[Physicians] have to be disciplined not to overprescribe antibiotics,” she added.

Rundown of AMR tools includes mass spectrometry

Diagnostic tests that accurately determine antimicrobial susceptibility to available medications are a cornerstone in fighting AMR. Common methods for identifying antimicrobial resistance include:

• Culture-based diagnostics
• Mass spectrometry
• Molecular diagnostics
• Immunodiagnostics

Each of those options comes with benefits and disadvantages. For example, cultures are inexpensive, but they also have a 16- to 48-hour turnaround time, which makes them prohibitive as point-of-care tests. Whole-genome sequencing and CRISPR-based diagnostics are among the innovations that will expand the AMR arsenal heading into the future.

Disagreement about AMR estimates

The incidence of AMR is not easy to track. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 1.3 million people die yearly across the world due to AMR.

Where that rate is headed in the coming decades is under debate. A well-known report commissioned by the UK in 2016 suggested that by 2050, AMR would lead to 10 million deaths each year globally.

If accurate, that would make AMR one of the leading causes of the death in the world by that point, Zinn said. “It will surpass cancer,” she added.

Other scientists dispute that number. A 2016 rebuttal in PLOS Medicine stated that more comprehensive antimicrobial resistance surveillance data was needed before a reliable future estimate could be established.

Regardless, clinicians generally agree that AMR poses a significant public health threat, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

‘Diagnostics must lead the charge’

Is fighting AMR a marketing pitch in part by vendors to sell more products? Perhaps. But there are also real-life stories involved that motivate scientists and executives working in the commercial sector.

Zinn, a veteran of several IVD companies, watched her mother die of sepsis from a urinary tract infection that went awry because of AMR. “For me, it is very personal,” she explained.

Diagnosis of infections acts as a first line of defense, she said, including through the use diagnostic technology. “Diagnostics must lead the charge,” Zinn added. “The future of healthcare is in our ability to detect and respond to these threats.”

For clinical laboratory managers and medical lab scientists, fighting AMR may turn out to be one of their most important endeavors from a public health perspective. Much like with the COVID-19 pandemic, lab professionals find themselves in the frontline trenches of this battle.

The difference? COVID-19 was an in-your-face threat that came on suddenly. By comparison, AMR might be considered a quieter, lurking threat that the public remains largely unaware of.

Labs can work with vendors and other external sources to convey a message to patients and their physicians about the risks of overprescribing or incorrectly ordering antibiotics.