The importance of the patient

In this video, Oluchi Mbamalu, a Research Pharmacist from the Division of Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, presents their work as part of the ASPIRES study. If you would like to recap the ASPIRES study before we begin, please click here and here.

This presentation specifically explores the opportunities for patient engagement and the need to further develop and explore patient and carer roles in infection care.

There was a widespread lack of knowledge and awareness from the public found for antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, before anything else was possible, public education and engagement were the initial key focal points. These were grouped into three areas to be targeted, which can be seen below:

Involvement of patients and the public comes with many challenges, for example, a power imbalance and barriers to communication. However, by overcoming these, it is hoped that we will take a big step towards a culture that seeks to promote patient safety.

In the next step, we will explore the importance of the patient perspective.