Antibiotic Resistance & Engineering a Medical Marvel

The Beginning of Health is to Know the Disease – Spanish Proverb

Antibiotic resistance is beginning to be a big problem, as those in medicine will tell you: in order to combat any ailment, doctors need to find ‘the right drug, for the right bug’. This can be a more difficult task than you would assume. Between processing patient history, addressing patient well being, eliminating false positives to prevent misdiagnosis, managing patient status through staff communication, all while observing HIPAA compliance…overwhelming in the least.

What if something wonderful happened, and there was a resource by which medical professionals could create a database, a map of organisms, and the antibiotics that are successful in treating those organisms, as well as the ones that are overused and over-treating those same organisms. What if that resource could also aid medical professionals in making recommendations about what to use to treat patients under those very specific conditions?

Thanks in part to Don Bremer and those behind Abx Tracker, the dream is now a reality.

From Consultant & Teacher, to Antibiotic Infrastructure in Saving Lives.

Don Bremer is a storied (15+ year) computer consultant and teacher at University of Minnesota Duluth Center of Economic Development, who absolutely lives for a challenge. He has taken on instructing classes in everything from ‘Computer Basics 101’, to in-depth courses on high level development languages. So, if anyone was up to the challenge of partnering with the senior care pharmacists of Abx Tracker in creating a veritable ‘golden apple’ of medical tools, it was Don.

Going into the project, they knew they sought to provide medical teams the definitive, highest quality product available in assisting Long Term Care facilities with prescription treatment under evidence based antibiotic guidelines. Take a second to absorb that… it’s a heavy task on any scale. The penultimate goal? Implement a tracking system by which doctors can subsequently better patients’ quality of life with optimized treatment solutions, at the click of a button.

Converting Mass Overhead into 8 Immediately Actionable Results

In practice, a nurse would fill out a SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) form, collecting name, date of birth, etc, then the system would create a systematic identifier not tied to the patient. Upon data entry, the Abx Tracker, would then cross reference the information, and create an informed list of valid treatment options that would be printed and/or faxed to a doctor.

The end document would advise the doctor as to whether the patient has met the criteria for specific antibiotic treatments. This all ensuring a medical regimen primed to cure infections in the most optimal way, by actualizing what counts:

1. Real-time tracking of antibiotics.
2. A reliable format in documenting potential infections.
3. The ability to easily populate tabled summaries of bacteria susceptible to antimicrobial agents (i.e. antibiotics).
4. A dedicated path toward reducing improper prescriptions.
5. User-friendly reporting.
6. Staff member infection logging.
7. Enhanced workload management.
8. Saving faculty time & money, allowing teams more time to focus on patients’ immediate care.

And you know what? Against all odds and complexities, they’ve created just that; simply awesome!

Open Source Problem Solving at its Finest

Out of our whole team behind Ninja Forms, I genuinely believe no amount of coffee, strategizing, or user-story mapping could have resulted in us foreseeing or documenting a potential use-case of antibiotic tracking and prescription diagnosis. That’s specifically why Don’s approach is such a standout.

Color us honored and impressed that the base framework was created by incorporating Ninja Forms as the underlying platform to extensibly add such a impressive suite of features within Abx Tracker. Coupled with Don’s ongoing dedication, 10,000+ lines of custom code, and the Abx team’s comprehensive understanding of Medicare, Medicaid expectations, and HIPAA regulations, they’ve succeeded in providing a vital offering of true antibiotic management for long term care associations. 

Success Through Implementation & Peace of Mind

With our heads wrapped around the issue at hand, the solution proposed & system provided, it’s hard not to geek out over the hard work (and altruistic intent) put forth by Mr. Bremer in this creation. While we would love to link to any social accounts for public admonishment or questions, but Don specifically and playfully admitted, “I’m trying to get rid of business. I’m a weird guy. I try desperately not to work…That’s why I work.” A good problem to have by our accounts.

For any savvy medical professionals who’re sure this could be the solution your practice ‘never knew you always needed’, you can find Abx Tracker at abxtracker.com
They’re so confident in their offerings, that the service comes complete with 180 day guarantee, should your team be dissatisfied in any way.

In earnest, bravo to the minds and labor behind Abx Tracker.