Ohio State Associate Professor Debra Goff, PharmD, FCCP, was selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of 25 global experts who will help health care professionals and government leaders in low- and middle-income countries implement antimicrobial stewardship plans based on a toolkit WHO published in October 2019.

Goff will serve as the only United States pharmacist, and one of two pharmacists, on the team that will focus on the role pharmacists can play in helping health care facilities ward off antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Three other U.S. physicians were also selected to join the team.

Goff’s background in AMR, including her efforts co-founding the antimicrobial stewardship program at the Wexner Medical Center and leading The Ohio State University – South Africa Antibiotic Stewardship “Train-the-Trainer” mentorship program, qualified her to voluntarily help WHO develop the toolkit over the last year and a half. The toolkit provides guidance on how to improve antibiotic prescribing practices and perform AMS interventions to reduce the risk of AMR.

The primary target audience of the WHO Policy Guidance on Integrated Antimicrobial Stewardship Activities in Human Health are national policy makers at Ministries of Health who are responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of the National Action Plans, policies and standards on AMR in the human health sector. The goal is to enable an integrated and programmatic approach to implementation in the human health sector.

Because the need to implement antimicrobial stewardship activities beyond health care facilities and clinical practice is great and requires a comprehensive approach, member states have requested WHO for policy guidance on implementation of antimicrobial stewardship activities in all settings in an integrated and programmatic approach. In response to this, the AMR Global Coordination and Partnership department of WHO has brought together global experts to assist in the development of this new policy guidance on integrated antimicrobial stewardship activities in human health.