Funded Project: Geo-mapping antimicrobial resistance in E. coli from humans & animals in Wisconsin

Recently, Dr. Laurel Legenza (PI) from the UW School of Pharmacy, Dr. Thomas R. Fritsche (Co-PI) from the Marshfield Medical Center and Professor Song Gao participating as a geospatial analysis scientist along with the State Cartographer’s Office (SCO) and other multidisciplinary collaborators, have been awarded a pilot grant from the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute for a research proposal titled “Geo-mapping antimicrobial resistance in E. coli from humans & animals” in Wisconsin.

The AMR Tracker tool, shown in the screenshot above, provides a map showing an array of antibiotics that might be prescribed to treat an infection (in this case, E.coli), and which one can be expected to work best in a specific geographic location. This could help doctors choose the right drug for their patients.

When a patient arrives at a hospital with an infection, his/her doctor must decide which antibiotic might have the best chance of curing him/her — no easy feat when disease-causing pathogens are increasingly resistant to multiple antibiotics. To make this data more accessible, a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy and the State Cartographer’s Office have developed a prototype system that maps out trends in antibiotic resistance across the State of Wisconsin, which provides guidance at a glance of the likelihood a pathogen will respond to a particular drug.

More details: [Link]