Tf. Obrien et Jm. Stelling, WHONET - REMOVING OBSTACLES TO THE FULL USE OF INFORMATION ABOUT ANTIMICROBIAL RESISTANCE, Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease, 25(4), 1996, pp. 163-168
A rich store of detailed information about antimicrobial resistance is
at each medical center in paper files inaccessible to analysis or in
electronic files too diverse to support a common analytical software.
WHONET puts that information on a personal computer at each center in
a file code and format that is the same at all centers, so that one so
ftware can then fully analyze the files at any center or those merged
from many centers. The software monitors the complex matrix of interre
lationships between all the measurements of resistance to antimicrobia
ls of tested isolates of each species and of control strains. Differen
ces at a center over time or between centers reflect differences in te
st performance or in the prevalence of specific resistant strains, whi
ch may be tracked. The software helps workers who are knowledgeable ab
out resistance, infection control and clinical use of antimicrobials a
t any center to control test quality and integrate the management of r
esistance there. Their ongoing monitoring and experience locally also
builds the quality and interpretation of the files merged from many ce
nters. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.