b'Chapter 6 Interpreting antimicrobial resistance results and the impact of new molecular technologiesAn interview with Thomas J. Kirn, MD, PhDAntimicrobial resistance continues to be a worldwide problem.This role in the clinical care team has become more solidified Antimicrobial resistance was associated with nearly 5 milliondue to a 2019 mandate from Centers for Medicare and deaths in 2019, according to a study published in The Lancet [1]. Medicaid Services that acute-care hospitals that serve In the U.S. alone, more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistantMedicare or Medicaid patients develop and implement antibiotic infections happen each year, and more than 35,000 people diestewardship programs.as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control andClinical Laboratory News spoke to Thomas J. Kirn, MD, PhD, Preventions (CDC) Antibiotic Resistance Threats Report [2]. associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine Antimicrobial resistance is an expensive problem, too. Theand medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in CDC also found that infections caused by multidrug-resistantNew Brunswick, New Jersey, about the role clinical laboratories organisms contribute more than $4.6 billion to healthcareplay in combating antimicrobial resistance, how advances in costs annually [3]. both engineering and laboratory technology have changed the approach clinical laboratorians take in this fight, and how that Clinical laboratories have always played a part in combatingmay change in the future.antimicrobial resistance by diagnosing what is making patientsThis interview has been edited for space and clarity.sick and what kinds of antibiotics have the best chance of working against a particular organism.20 Molecular testing thermofisher.com/infectiousdisease Contents'