{"id":2724,"date":"2020-06-25T09:31:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T13:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/?p=2724"},"modified":"2020-11-27T09:51:41","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T14:51:41","slug":"carolina-antimicrobial-stewardship-program-leads-remdesivir-roll-out-across-unc-health-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/2020\/06\/carolina-antimicrobial-stewardship-program-leads-remdesivir-roll-out-across-unc-health-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program leads remdesivir roll-out across UNC Health hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"headshot
Ashley Marx, PharmD<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Lindsay Daniels, PharmD, MPH<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP) is carrying out intensive stewardship in the realm of COVID-19.\u00a0The work is a natural extension of its mission to improve the use of antimicrobials (which include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics). In addition to CASP\u2019s daily stewardship to ensure patients receive antimicrobials only when needed, with the right drug, right dose, and right duration, team members are overseeing a painstaking process of making a new treatment available to hospitalized COVID-19 patients.<\/p>\n

In May 2020, UNC Medical Center (UNCMC) was among the first hospitals to receive a batch of the first proven treatment for COVID-19 via the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS). Remdesivir is a broad-spectrum antiviral created through a partnership<\/a> between UNC epidemiologist Ralph Baric\u2019s Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Gilead Sciences. It shortens the average duration of COVID-19 symptoms by four days and shows a trend for decreased mortality.<\/p>\n

Remdesivir is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but has been available to patients since May under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). During an emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic, an EUA makes treatments available prior to FDA approval b\u00ad\u00ad\u00adased on limited but promising scientific evidence \u00ad\u00adwhen there are no better alternatives available. The UNC Health Anti-Infective Subcommittee developed clinical guidance for physicians to help guide decisions about which patients are most likely to benefit from remdesivir, in accordance with strict EUA and NC DHHS rules.<\/p>\n

CASP\u2019s antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists Lindsay Daniels, PharmD, MPH and Ashley Marx, PharmD manage remdesivir approvals, distribution, and tracking across all UNC Health system\u2019s hospitals statewide in collaboration with members of UNC Health\u2019s Departments of Pharmacy. Together with CASP physicians<\/a>, they review each request for the drug in detail and determine if the patient meets the stringent EUA guidelines. If so, Daniels and Marx communicate the approval to the patient care team and to the service pharmacist who enters and verifies the drug order.\u00a0 Operational pharmacy teams prepare the drug for dispensing. Under the EUA, there are extra layers of assurances and reporting the Pharmacy Department undertakes to ensure that drugs are used appropriately, as UNCMC must provide a full accounting to NCDHHS for each dose administered.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to advocate for the patients, and each of us lends our expertise to ensure we\u2019re taking all factors available into account to make the best treatment decisions,\u201d Marx explained.<\/p>\n

As the global race forges ahead to identify safe and effective therapeutics, all hope that additional treatments will soon be added to the arsenal to help Marx and colleagues do just that.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Parr, MD, MPH, a CASP team member who also directs the Division of Infectious Diseases inpatient COVID-19 service, praised the remdesivir roll-out, saying, \u201cThis is an extremely impactful activity and requires a tremendous amount of detailed, thoughtful work. Dr. Daniels and Dr. Marx have excelled in developing and implementing a system that supports patients, their loved ones, and their care teams across the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (CASP) is carrying out intensive stewardship in the realm of COVID-19.\u00a0The work is a natural extension of its mission to improve the use of antimicrobials (which include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and antiparasitics). In addition to CASP\u2019s daily stewardship to ensure patients receive antimicrobials only when needed, with the right drug, right … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103756,"featured_media":2725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-2724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/563\/2020\/06\/Ashley-Marx-e1593024079201.png","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/563\/2020\/06\/Ashley-Marx-e1593024079201.png","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/563\/2020\/06\/Ashley-Marx-e1593024079201.png","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/563\/2020\/06\/Ashley-Marx-e1593024079201.png","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/563\/2020\/06\/Ashley-Marx-150x150.png","featured_image_alt":"headshot of Ashley Marx, PharmD","category_details":[{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[{"name":"2020","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/tag\/2020\/"}],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103756"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/casp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}