A driving force behind AMR is the inappropriate use of antibiotics. It is critical to understand how antibiotics are consumed, prescribed, and misused in healthcare settings, agricultural sector, and by the public. Misuse is often a result of the lack of tools for appropriate diagnosis. Such understanding will be important to inform solutions such as precision prescribing and antibiotics stewardship.
Imperial hosts two centres that focus on antibiotic consumption and misuse:
NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance (HPRU HCAI AMR)
Imperial's HPRU HCAI AMR includes a focus on understanding the underlying causes of AMR and HCAIs. They also focus on solutions, including identifying the best methods to improve antimicrobial use, their potential impact and their cost-effectiveness.
- Learn more about the HPRU HCAI AMR's research themes: Priority pathogens, Precision prescribing, Practice Design and Engineering, and Population Health and Policy.
Centre for Antimicrobial Optimisation (CAMO) 
CAMO aims to develop new technologies with experts in the field to support tailored therapy for the individual, organism and infection. As part of this, they are also working to understand the impact of inappropriate use and misuse of antibiotics.
Researchers in this area include:
- Professor Alison Holmes: AMR epidemiology, public health, precision medicine, emerging technologies, antibiotic optimisation
- Professor Darius Armstrong-James: Usage in respiratory fungal disease and leading antifungal stewardship initiatives
- Dr Gabriel Birgand: AMS in nursing homes
- Will Bolton: AI-based clinical decision support for antibiotic optimisation and stewardship
- Professor Mark Gilchrist: Stewardship, healthcare-associated infections, and hospital epidemiological services
- Dr Bernard Hernandez: Point of care decision support systems
- Dr Julie McDonald: Gut microbiota and antimicrobial resistance
- Dr Tim Rawson: Precision prescribing
- Dr Jesus Rodriguez Manzano: Molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases and AMR
- Dr Anand Shah: Antifungal stewardship and AMR in chronic lung disease
- Dr Calvin Tiengwe: AMR in trypanosomes driven by the agricultural sector and livestock farming (incl. counterfeit drugs, outdated treatments, indiscriminate use)
- Mr Richard Wilson: Technologies to improve antimicrobial prescribing
- Dr Nina Zhu: Assessing the impact of health interventions
