Surveillance Systems from Public Health Institutions and Scientific Societies for Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections in Europe (SUSPIRE): Protocol for a Systematic Review

COMBACTE-MAGNET’s EPI-NET had their SUSPIRE Protocol recently published in the BMJ Open. The protocol describes the SUSPIRE project, its objective and its importance in overcoming the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Introduction: The worldwide spread of antimicrobial resistance is now recognised as a global public health threat. Owing to the geographical heterogeneity, complexity and continuously evolving dynamics of resistant organisms and genes, surveillance is a key tool for understanding, measuring and informing actions in the fight against this problem. To date there is no harmonisation of key indicators or of methodologies used to obtain them.

Methods and analysis: The main objective of this project is to systematically review and analyse the current publicly available surveillance activities on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections in Europe. Eligible activities are those endorsed by regional, national or transnational health organisations and scientific societies providing data on a periodic basis. Grey and peer-reviewed literature will be searched with no language restrictions. Three independent reviewers will perform a two-step selection process using a previously piloted, tailored electronic data extraction form. Descriptive summaries and tables of all relevant findings will be performed and reported according to PRISMA guidelines.

Ethics and dissemination: We did not seek ethical approval for this study because the data to be collected are not linked to individuals. Data will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals.