Pittman, Genevra. "Surveillance May Help Doctors Decide to Prescribe." Reuters, August 6, 2012.
From the report: "A new study suggests that using electronic health records to tell doctors what infections are going around in their community could help cut down on unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions.
That's important because the more often antibiotics are used, the more likely bugs will become resistant to the drugs and harder to treat the next time around. And doctors often prescribe antibiotics when it's not clear whether or not a bacterial infection is really behind a person's fever, runny nose and cough, researchers said." Read more
See also
Hebert, Courtney, Jennifer Beaumont, Gene Schwartz, and Ari Robicsek. The Influence of Context on Antimicrobial Prescribing for Febrile Respiratory Illness A Cohort Study."
Annals of Internal Medicine, August 2012, Vol. 157 No., 160-169.
