Magnolia Medical Technologies Marks World AMR Awareness Week by Recognizing the Need to Reduce Antibiotic Usage through Accurate Blood Culture Results

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) has been declared by WHO as a top 10 global public health threat that is predicted to worsen unless significant action is taken, including mitigating the need for antibiotics with more accurate tests.

SEATTLE, Nov. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- In observance of World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW), Magnolia Medical Technologies, Inc., the inventors of the Steripath^® Initial Specimen Diversion Device^® (ISDD^®) and the ISDD market to prevent false-positive sepsis tests, is driving efforts to highlight the role of diagnostic stewardship in combating the risk of AMR.

Its Steripath family of products has been clinically proven to significantly improve the accuracy of blood culture, which is the gold standard test for detecting bloodstream infections, including sepsis. Accurate blood culture results prevent patients from receiving unnecessary, prolonged, and potentially harmful antibiotic therapies, and associated preventable clinical complications, including acute kidney injury, Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), and multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections.

According to the study, The Review of Antimicrobial Resistance, drug resistance is one of the most serious health threats facing humanity, potentially causing 10 million deaths per year and a global economic cost of $100 trillion by 2050.¹ In the United States, at least 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant organisms annually, contributing to at least 35,000 deaths per year.²

"As a nurse, I have seen first-hand the destructive impact of AMR," shared Tammy Johnson, RN and AVP, Clinical Strategy at Magnolia Medical. "I can't stress enough the importance of ensuring accurate diagnoses from the start.

"For patients with bloodstream infection symptoms, diagnostic accuracy can eliminate the clinical and treatment uncertainty caused by false-positive findings. Patients are therefore not needlessly exposed to unnecessary antibiotics in the first place. If they do have an infection, they can receive targeted antibiotic therapy earlier, reducing the risk for the development of antibiotic-resistant organisms. We recently completed a survey of over 1,000 Americans that highlighted the public and medical community's concern with the issue of AMR."

Select survey findings are presented in the report, Going Blue: Confronting the AMR Challenge, and include:

• 19% of Americans, who are not in the medical field, are "not familiar at all" with the term "antimicrobial-resistant bacteria."
• Those respondents who work in healthcare have a 56% higher level of concern about being prescribed antibiotics unnecessarily during hospitalization as compared to those who do not.
• 43% of all surveyed respondents have never discussed AMR with their healthcare provider.
• Americans give low marks to the performance of the government in protecting the health and safety of hospitalized patients.

"We strongly support the WHO's initiatives to promote evidence-based best practices to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections," said Greg Bullington, CEO and Co-Founder of Magnolia Medical. "We are proud to 'Go Blue' for World AMR Awareness Week.

"Our Steripath solution has helped hospitals across the U.S. achieve their quality improvement initiatives to significantly improve sepsis testing accuracy by reducing blood culture contamination. Imagine if 40% of cancer patients received chemotherapy unnecessarily because of a false-positive cancer diagnosis. That's exactly what is happening with the current state of sepsis false-positive diagnoses. Our mission is to eliminate the misdiagnosis of sepsis and by doing so, stave off the pace of AMR by reducing unnecessary antibiotic usage at its source."

Magnolia Medical is encouraging everyone to "Go Blue" from November 18 to 24 to raise awareness for AMR and the need for continued education of this issue. Please visit VoicesofSepsis.org to encourage action from your congressional representatives to support patient safety measures that also help combat the threat of AMR.

About World AMR Awareness Week

The World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) is a global campaign to raise awareness and understanding of AMR and promote best practices among healthcare stakeholders to reduce the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections. The theme for this year's WAAW "Preventing antimicrobial resistance together," calls for cross-sectoral collaboration in the prudent and appropriate use of antibiotics to preserve its effectiveness for generations to come.

About Steripath

The Steripath^® Initial Specimen Diversion Device^® platform offers the only all-in-one devices that are clinically proven to meet the ENA, INS, CDC, and CLSI evidence-based best practice guidelines to reduce blood culture contamination.^3,4,5,6,7 To date, 20 clinical studies have been completed supporting the clinical and cost effectiveness of Steripath. All studies reported sustained contamination rates of 0-1% using Steripath, up to a 31% reduction in vancomycin days of therapy, and as much as a 12-fold decrease in false-positive central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) over extended periods of time.^8,9,10

Steripath has been adopted by hundreds of U.S. hospitals and healthcare systems to address the problem of blood culture contamination, which can lead to sepsis misdiagnosis resulting in unnecessary, prolonged, and harmful antibiotic treatment, extended length of hospital stay, false-positive CLABSIs, and wasted healthcare resources.

About Magnolia Medical Technologies

Magnolia Medical Technologies develops, manufactures, and markets innovative blood and bodily fluid collection devices to facilitate significant improvements in the accuracy, consistency, and predictability of critical laboratory tests. Magnolia Medical invented and patented the Initial Specimen Diversion Technique^® (ISDT^®) and Initial Specimen Diversion Device^® (ISDD^®) for blood culture collection and contamination prevention. The company has amassed an intellectual property portfolio, including more than 150 issued method, apparatus, and design patents with more than 50 additional patent applications pending. For more information, visit www.magnolia-medical.com.

1. https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/AMR%20Review%20Paper%20-%20Tackling%20a%20crisis%20for%20the%20health%20and%20wealth%20of%20nations_1.pdf.
2. www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/pdf/5-Things-To-Know-H.pdf.
3. Blood Culture Contamination Prevention Actions: An Overview of Infection Control and Antibiotic Stewardship Programs Working with the Clinical Laboratory. 2022.
4. Principles and Procedures for Blood Cultures. 2nd Ed. CLSI Guideline M47. Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. 2022.
5. CDC National Email Update to Clinicians. Clinicians: Use this guide to decrease blood culture contamination rates. July 2022.
6. Vanhoy MA, Horigan A, Kaiser J, et al. Emergency Nurses Association (ENA). Clinical practice guideline: prevention of blood culture contamination. 2020.
7. Gorski LA, Hadaway L, Hagle ME, et al. Infusion therapy standards of practice, 8th edition. J Infus Nurs. 2021 Jan-Feb 01;44(1S Suppl 1): S1-S224.
8. Date on file.
9. Nielsen LE, Nguyen K, Wahl CK, et al. Initial Specimen Diversion Device® reduces blood culture contamination and vancomycin use in academic medical center. J Hosp Infect. 2021;117.
10. Tompkins LS, Tien V, Madison AN. Getting to zero: impact of a device to reduce blood culture contamination and false-positive central line-associated bloodstream infections. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2022;1-5.

SOURCE Magnolia Medical Technologies