Here’s to another year…
By Paul Plummer
Well, it seems like just yesterday I was writing a note to all of you reflecting on 2022, and now here we are looking back on 2023. It has been another productive and busy year. Although there is far more we could highlight, I wanted to share a few high points that we have collectively achieved over the last year.
This winter, the operation center worked with six NIAMRRE members who expressed interest in pursuing a series of collaborative proposals for the USDA APHIS Antimicrobial Resistance Dashboard. We supported these projects by assisting with organizational calls, clearly defining proposal scopes that were synergistic but not duplicative, and assisting with language and figures to tie the proposals together and demonstrate to reviewers how the proposals were integrated.
While these projects were a significant undertaking, they were a perfect example of the collaborative and synergistic research efforts that can be achieved when each group’s strengths are leveraged. Six projects out of nine proposals submitted received funding this summer. To see that NIAMRRE’s previous advocacy efforts in this research area translated to funded collaborative projects across our membership is immensely rewarding. These collaborative projects represent a significant organizational achievement and demonstrate how our collective advocacy, collaboration, education, and research efforts can inform research priorities and funding while allowing our members to work across institutional boundaries to produce high-level, impactful research.
In May, we traveled to sunny Gainsville, FL, for our Annual Conference, another “mountaintop” experience for NIAMRRE and our members. As an operations center, we love those opportunities to meet and visit with all of you face-to-face, and this conference did not disappoint. Attendance at the meeting continued to grow, and we had strong representation from each One Health sector. We dove head-first into social science issues that impact AMR, notably behavioral sciences and communication. We also debuted the first trainee-focused workshop to help expose undergraduate, graduate, and postdoc trainees to different careers related to antimicrobial use, stewardship, or resistance. Throughout the conference, impressive education posters and presentations generated deep discussions and led to collaborative projects later in the year. We’re looking forward to building on this momentum again on May 14-16 at the 2024 Annual Conference “Bridging Gaps in AMR” hosted by The Ohio State University.
2023 also marked the second year of our One Health Antimicrobial Resistance Interprofessional Education (IPE) cohort series. Over thirty hand-selected participants engaged in a series of virtual facilitated discussions exploring the complex interface of human, animal, plant, and environmental antimicrobial resistance. Through these discussions, we develop a shared understanding of how each sector addresses stewardship, the complexity of this interface, and a shared “language” and understanding of the tools we have at our disposal. It is great to see how participants start to piece together their One Health understanding and, in turn, their enthusiasm to share that with their colleagues. Cohort 3 has been finalized for 2024 and will start after the new year, but if this sounds like something that would interest you, be on the lookout next fall for a call for nominations to cohort 4.
November brought two significant opportunities to enhance NIAMRRE’s focus on education. The first was an opportunity to host a Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC) Antimicrobial Resistance Bioinformatics Workshop. This three-day workshop focused on start-to-finish bioinformatic analysis of bacterial genomes with integrated antimicrobial resistance assessment and analysis. Led by the BV-BRC team, 80 participants had an opportunity to learn from experts while getting to know them individually and building future collaborative research opportunities. The Bioinformatics Workshop was NIAMRRE’s first experience hosting a technical workshop, and it was a huge success! We look forward to partnering with BV-BRC in future years to bring this opportunity to our members.
The second event was a collaboration between NIAMRRE and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to host a virtual case discussion on One Health antimicrobial resistance. 600 participants, representing over 50 countries, conversed simultaneously in three languages! Similar to our NIAMRRE IPE events, it included professional students from various health sectors and was designed to demonstrate the complexity of transmission cycles and clinical decision-making. NIAMRRE developed the case discussion, talking points, and remarks on the case. We loved the opportunity to engage eager students in these interprofessional discussions and see their passion for addressing the global issue of AMR.
Countless member spotlights, zoom discussions, face-to-face meetings, and team research collaborations between these larger events have occurred. Our operations center is honored to aid you all in making these productive interactions, and we hope that you will continue to engage in the activities of 2024. If you are not already a member of the NIAMRRE Exchange community, please take a couple of minutes now to sign up. Being a part of the community ensures you get all of the latest updates and opportunities we offer while also allowing you to connect and network with colleagues sharing your interest in antimicrobials. I also encourage you to save May 14-16, 2024, for a trip to our NIAMRRE Annual Conference, hosted this year on the campus of The Ohio State University. More details will be coming soon.
Finally, I want to thank each and every one of you for your diligent work to ensure that we continue to have efficacious therapeutic options to control bacterial and fungal diseases. Our disciplines and expertise are very diverse, but our goal is one! Here’s to looking ahead to 2024…
- By Paul Plummer