Last week, the IMAGINE Project was represented at the Preventing Overdiagnosis international conference, held in the city of Oxford. This location carries special symbolism, as it was here that Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin marked a turning point in the history of medicine, laying the foundations for modern antibiotic treatment.
During the event, Marie Theut had a quick-fire poster presentation titled “Developing Tools to Reduce Overdiagnosis of Infections and Overuse of Antibiotics in Nursing Homes”. Her presentation highlighted how the creation of practical tools can support healthcare staff in making more precise decisions, thereby avoiding unnecessary treatments.
Meanwhile, Jette Nygaard Jensen gave a presentation entitled “Exploring Drivers of Antibiotic Overuse in European Nursing Homes: A Multi-Country Context Analysis from the IMAGINE Project”. She presented the project’s first study results, which aim to improve antibiotic use in nursing homes and help ensure these medicines remain effective for everyone, especially older people. This initiative is developing a multifaceted intervention to promote infection prevention measures and encourage the appropriate use of antibiotics in nursing homes across eight European countries, including Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Denmark.
Both presentations emphasized a key message: the importance of combining scientific knowledge with practical tools to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use in nursing homes.