TITLE:
A Narrative Review of the Laboratory Information System and Its Role in Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in South Africa
AUTHORS:
Peter S. Nyasulu, Christine Paszko, Nontombi Mbelle
KEYWORDS:
Laboratory Information Systems, Antimicrobial Resistance, Bacterial Pathogens, Surveillance, South Africa
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.4 No.10,
August
29,
2014
ABSTRACT: A
laboratory information system (LIS) established in a microbiology department
has the potential to play an important role in the quality of microbiology data such as culture of blood, urine, stool, pus swab
samples etc. Such data could be effectively utilised to measure the burden of antimicrobial
resistance among patients presented to various hospitals and clinics with an
episode of an infectious illness of bacterial origin. A variety of clinical and epidemiological
investigations are conducted using culture data and the presence of an electronic
system such as LIS enhances such investigations and improves the reliability of
measures of antimicrobial resistance owing to improved data quality as well as
completeness of data gathered as opposed to paper based system. Therefore to improve surveillance of antimicrobial
resistance in
South Africa, there is a need to reinforce the functionality of the LIS in both public and
private microbiology laboratories as this will help to improve internal quality
control methodologies.