Clinical Isolate-Diagnosis Link
One of the five key Challenges to Integrated Surveillance.
Problem
Laboratory results are not consistently linked to clinical diagnoses at the national level. Bacterial isolates are reported with resistance profiles but often lack clinical context - patient diagnosis, infection type, and treatment outcome.
Why This Matters
Without this linkage, it is impossible to:
- Measure the real clinical impact of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
- Design targeted interventions
- Develop informed treatment guidelines
- Strengthen One Health integration across human, animal, and environmental sectors
The disconnection is caused by:
- IT infrastructure limitations between laboratories and clinical systems
- Privacy and ethical concerns regarding personal health data (see Legal and Ethical Considerations)
Proposed Solution
- Develop national systems that securely connect laboratory results with clinical information
- Leverage national electronic medical record platforms and existing health data registries
- Ensure interoperability between laboratory information management systems, hospital IT systems, and public health databases
- Adopt standardised data formats (e.g., WHO GLASS-compatible frameworks)
- Use unique patient identifiers enabling linkage without compromising privacy
Pilot programmes
Ongoing EU pilot programmes (EHDS@LV, HealthData@EU) involving collaborative data-sharing agreements could serve as scalable models for national implementation.
Benefit
Improves clinical relevance of surveillance data, supports better treatment guidelines, and strengthens One Health integration.