Article- 29/04/2024

The Antibiotic Stewardship Programme through Innovation, Research, and Education (ASPIRE) is a 3-year project funded by LifeArc that aims to optimise antibiotic use in Zambia and Kenya by integrating innovative digital solutions with targeted stewardship interventions. ASPIRE represents an unprecedented leap in antibiotic stewardship, pioneering the integration of AI-driven digital tools to deliver real-time, contextualized, and data-informed recommendations to clinicians in Zambia and Kenya. This initiative marks a ground-breaking step by introducing a dedicated patient application, a novel concept in the regions, designed for self-reporting of adverse events and providing users with crucial treatment context.

This patient-centric approach is poised to significantly enhance patient involvement and adherence to treatment plans. Knowledge translation is a vital component of ASPIRE, with a dedicated commitment to turning research insights into practical, actionable strategies that can be widely disseminated and adopted. This aspect is significant for ensuring that learnings are not confined to academic circles but are extended to benefit the broader healthcare community. The project incorporates a rigorous economic evaluation of antibiotic stewardship programs to underscore the cost-effectiveness and financial sustainability of its approaches. ASPIRE also commits to a sustainable framework with scalable impact, designing interventions that can be adapted and expanded beyond the initial settings, ultimately aiming to shape national policy, and set new benchmarks for antibiotic use in LMICs. Each element of the ASPIRE initiative is interwoven to ensure that the project is not only innovative and distinctive but also capable of driving long-term, systemic change in antibiotic stewardship across diverse healthcare landscapes.

Since the launch, the ReAct Africa project teams in Zambia and Kenya have been engaging the healthcare professionals from a total of four tertiary hospitals – two in each country – to help them have an in-depth understanding of the project and the step-by-step implementation process. The four hospitals being, The Children’s Hospital at the University Teaching Hospitals, and the Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital in Zambia and Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and the AAR Hospital in Kenya are geared and ready to embark on what promises to be a pivotal milestone in their institutions’ journeys for quality health care provision!