Drs. Jeremy Grimshaw, Kednapa Thavorn and Patrick Fafard are playing important roles in a York University-led project awarded $2.5 million from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada to pursue research into a global framework for sustainable antimicrobial drug use and preventing the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria.

The effectiveness of antimicrobials, upon which modern medicine and agriculture depend, is a precious resource that must be protected through coordinated global action. Before an effective global response can be developed, a greater understanding of the underlying social drivers of antimicrobial resistance is needed.

The partnership grant led by Dr. Steven J. Hoffman of York University and Director of the Global Strategy Lab aims to develop a unifying global goal that can serve as a political barometer for progress on antimicrobial resistance, unpack the root social drivers of antimicrobial resistance and critically assess which national policies can best, address them from empirical, equity, ethics, and economics perspectives; and propose transformative global strategies for managing the shared pool of effective antimicrobials in a sustainable, acceptable, fair and effective manner.

Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw will lead a living systematic review of government policies to reduce human antimicrobial use, as well as a complementary living systematic review focused on government policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial use and contamination in agriculture, agri-food, animal health, and the environment.

Dr. Kednapa Thavorn will lead a series of economic modelling studies to integrate the existing evidence and predict the potential impact of various national policies when applied at the global level and to consider what distribution of efforts and investments would yield optimal outcomes.

Dr. Patrick Fafard, senior investigator with the Global Strategy Lab, will co-lead the development of regional political acceptability profiles covering the identified policy options that could contribute to the safe management of antimicrobial resistance.

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and supported by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.