A team led by Michihiko Goto, MD, MSCI, Clinical Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases, has recently won a three-year, $778,000 VA grant to begin a VA Patient Safety Center of Inquiry (PSCI). PSCIs are focused on exploring specific areas of patient safety and determining practical tools to reduce any number of threats to patients in medical centers. Using these funds, Dr. Goto will establish the Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Prevention of Antimicrobial Resistance, or CASPAR. He and his team aim to develop new and innovative metrics for antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) using data from VA medical centers throughout the nation, overcoming the major limitations of currently available metrics. CASPAR’s new metrics should give all providers a better view of whether antibiotics are being effectively prescribed.

Not only will Dr. Goto’s team analyze the effectiveness of previous and existing efforts at curbing the over-prescription of antibiotics, they will also develop and deploy a digital tool in VA facilities, allowing the sites to compare the effectiveness of their new ASPs. By centralizing and tracking antibiotic usage and effectiveness, CASPAR’s tool has the potential to reduce antimicrobial resistance among veterans treated nationwide.