The 12^th Congress of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila took place in Bucharest, Romania from 24 to 26 October 2024.

The REVERSE Team from Romania was in attendance and presented a session entirely dedicated to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) management, featuring the project!

The conference is a highlight for both national and international participation and the REVERSE session entitled Antimicrobial resistance management: the need for a multidisciplinary approach, example of Horizon-2020 REVERSE Project was delivered to a packed room. 

The session was chaired by REVERSE country lead, Prof Dr Adriana Hristea and Fundeni Clinical Institute hospital manager, Prof Dr Anca Coliţă. 

The session featured four key note presentations followed by a very interactive discussion segment.

The opening lecture explored an overview of the preliminary results in the six Romanian hospitals included in the REVERSE project, presented by Dr Christian-Mihail Niculae from the Institutul Naţional de Boli Infecţioase Prof Dr Matei Balş.

Points of discussion included the prevalence of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) - in Romania, 49,757 estimated patients are diagnosed with an HCAI per year (data 2023). Dr Niculae explored the relationship between HCAIs and AMR and then introduced and explained the REVERSE integrated, evidence-based modular strategy. 

The session then moved onto optimising diagnostic programmes with Microbiology Diagnostic Stewardship (MDS), delivered by Dr Diana Iacob from the Spitalul Universitar de Urgenţă Bucureşti.

Dr Iacob first defined diagnostic/laboratory stewardship and moved on to detail MDS - one of the main REVERSE interventions, specifically how we are optimising microbiological diagnostic capacity and exploring molecular sequencing for outbreak investigation. 

Infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes for HCAIs then took centre stage, presented by Dr Raluca Hrişcă from Spitalul Universitar de Urgenţă Military Central. She said:

"Hand Hygiene is the most important measure to prevent HCAIs"

First, we looked at the IPC multi-model strategies and the progress of implementation within the Romanian hospitals, highlighting the importance of the when and the how of implementing innovations. Results of hospital hand hygiene compliance survey's, using the WHO methodology Hand Hygiene Self Assessment Framework (HHSAF), were presented. 

The final cutting-edge lecture took a deep dive into the antimicrobial stewardship programme in the REVERSE project. Dr Valeriu Gheorgitţă from Spitalul Clinic de Urgenţă Agrippa Ionescu guided the participants though this innovative presentation. 

Dr Gheorgitţă discussed the point prevalence studies (PPS), clonal inbreeding of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), detection of resistance mechanisms, and presented the Romanian hospitals results of PPS1 and the preliminary results of PPS2.

The session closed out with an interactive discussion, allowing the audience to post questions and interact with the faculty.