Arkansas Antimicrobial Stewardship Foundation
arstewardship.bsky.social
Arkansas Antimicrobial Stewardship Foundation
@arstewardship.bsky.social
Arkansas Antimicrobial Stewardship Foundation: Promoting antibiotic stewardship education to better the health outcomes of all Arkansans.
Meet Dr. Monica Mahoney (@mmpharmd.bsky.social), an infectious diseases pharmacist practicing in the outpatient ID and OPAT clinics at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She'll be sharing some of her experience at ARSAS. The full schedule is available now: www.arstewardship.org/2026schedule
January 26, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Despite us being cold in Arkansas today, there's a real risk from the thawing Arctic permafrost. Permafrost is an archive of ancient bacteria and resistance genes that have been locked away. Thawing can release them, and they can share their genes through horizontal gene transfer. Pretty scary.
January 24, 2026 at 9:56 PM
I'm going to start featuring some of our speakers. The first one is our keynote Dr. Erin McCreary Have you ever listened to the SIDP Breakpoints podcast? Register for ARSAS (March 13, 2026) to hear @erinmccreary.bsky.social speak about microbiology lab collaborations. tinyurl.com/ARSAS2026
January 23, 2026 at 3:14 PM
It’s finally here! We’re super excited to open up registration for the Arkansas Summit for Antimicrobial Stewardship. We have a new venue with more space and great facilities! We also have some great topics planned. More information to come in the coming weeks.
January 13, 2026 at 1:50 PM
Here are my top 10 articles (or interesting topics) for 2025 in ID. There were also new COVID guidelines and some research in treatment that didn’t make the list, and we got a few new UTI drugs (Bluejepa and Orlynvah) and Emblaveo. Fosfomycin IV finally made its way to the USA.
January 12, 2026 at 4:29 PM
I'm watching one of my favorite holiday movies: The Muppet Christmas Carol. It reminded me that Tiny Tim probably had tuberculosis (TB) & rickets. Everything is TB. Several articles have examined the conditions & common ailments in 1800s London. Here's a good one. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Environmental Factors in Tiny Tim's Near-Fatal Illness
Physicians, Dickens scholars, and historians have tried to diagnose the condition that affected Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol. Leading entities include tuberculosis (TB), rickets, malnutrition, cerebr...
jamanetwork.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:27 AM
Blujepa was approved in March of this year. Contepo was approved in November. Orlynvah was approved in October of 2024, but I threw it in here too. I actually have heard of Blujepa being used in practice, but I haven't heard of anyone seeing Orlynvah yet.
December 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Stay safe on your travels next week. It's a bit too late to get vaccines for next week's travels, but it's a good idea to make sure you're up to date. Keeping your hands clean is a very important way to reduce infection risks, especially while traveling. Happy #USAAW and Happy Thanksgiving!
November 22, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Even our vets and pets can contribute to antimicrobial resistance. We mentioned livestock yesterday, but today is about how pet owners and veterinarians can help prevent antimicrobial resistance.
November 21, 2025 at 2:58 AM
We often overlook agriculture and farming when thinking about antimicrobial stewardship, but we're exposed to numerous resistant bacteria from these sources. Most of the recent food recalls are due to agricultural runoff and poor manure management.
November 20, 2025 at 4:22 AM
Yesterday's post was about the people in direct contact with the patient. Today's #USAAW week post is about the backbone of most of our stewardship programs: the clinical micro lab. We're all in this together. We all have a role.
November 18, 2025 at 11:05 PM
For our first #USAAW week post, let's look at the 5 Ds of Stewardship. This is one place were providers, pharmacist, and other patient care team members can make a big difference. #WereInItTogether
November 17, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Mastery Monday: This came up this weekend, so I made an infographic about it. It's a pretty common question that pharmacy gets from providers at all levels. Is your patient allergic or not? Most PCN allergies aren't real, but we want to be cautious with any allergy a patient reports.
October 21, 2025 at 12:07 AM
I don't know about you, but my nightmares are filled with superbugs and NDMs, not Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. That makes March, Friday the 13th the perfect time to come together to fight and prevent these real monsters. Save the date: more details to come.
October 16, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Sometimes, the sodium content of antibiotics matters. Just last week, there was a CHF patient with pneumonia who wasn’t improving - It turns out that the culprit wasn’t infection severity; it was likely the sodium load from Zosyn (piperacillin–tazobactam). Check out our "fry scale."
October 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
It's Wednesday and I forgot to post our Mastery Monday post on here. Oops! Drug fever is relatively uncommon, with estimates varying but often placing it around 3-5% of drug-related adverse effects or 1-3% of fevers of unknown origin. If you see a persistent fever, it could be worth considering.
October 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Mastery Monday: I wouldn't say Tygacil is a first line
for VRE, but it's an option (and it can be a good one for
polymicrobial intrabdominal infections associated with
VRE). Linezolid is an option even if someone is on an
SSRI, depending on the patient.
September 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Mastery Monday: Azithromycin is a fun antibiotic to learn about because it's kind of weird. It's also not as effective as it used to be, which is a global concern due to overprescribing because it is cheap and easily accessible. Who hasn't had an unnecessary Z-Pak? I think most of us have.
September 22, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Mastery Monday: This week it's oral cephalosporins.The main point is that even though your isolate is susceptible to a ceftriaxone, that doesn't mean the drugs will cover it. We usually use cefazolin as a surrogate.PharmSoHard did a really good podcast about cefdinir data and controversies in 2023.
September 15, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Mastery Monday: Since it's early in the school year for our new students, residents, and fellows, I thought I'd start doing some "Mastery Monday" posts with some simple, easy to digest facts that will help you all grow into good stewards. If you have an idea for a future topic, let me know.
September 8, 2025 at 2:06 PM
We have Amanda's CAP guideline summary here, though there is a little controversy with this one!
September 5, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I've summarized the new cUTI IDSA guidelines (they came out on July 17. A new CAP guideline came out then too but there's some IDSA/ATS drama so I was waiting on the official IDSA letter for that one - who knew ID was so spicy?).
August 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Sunday kicks off Shark Week, and it’s also the 50th Anniversary of Jaws this summer! You might wonder what sharks have to do with stewardship. As apex predators, they face many of the same challenges we do. Stewardship is a team sport and affects the whole ecosystem! #SharkWeek #jaws50
July 19, 2025 at 2:08 AM
Did you know that today's holiday used to be associated with tetanus? The severity of the disease led some to compare the holiday's death toll to that of major battles for independence.
July 4, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Check out our latest blog post to join our education committee and find out more about the ADH survey.
www.arstewardship.org/post/join-ou...
Join Our Education Committee
We want to expand our outreach from the Summit to other parts of the state to further stewardship efforts. If you'd be interested in joining our education committee to discuss what opportunities you'...
www.arstewardship.org
June 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM