NL
Implementation scientist prof. dr. Marlies Hulscher of IQ Health received the SWAB award from the Antibiotic Policy Working Group Foundation on 26 June last. This career award was presented for the 20th time to "someone who is exceptionally committed to improving antimicrobial therapy and antibiotic policy. The winner is a bridge builder who promotes cooperation between different specialisms and parties in the fight against infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance."
Founded in 1996, the Stichting Werkgroep Antibiotica Beleid (SWAB) (Foundation Working Group on Antibiotic Policy) aims to optimise the quality of antibiotic use in the Netherlands. In doing so, it aims to contribute to controlling resistance development and limiting the costs and other negative effects of antibiotic use. Since 2002, the SWAB award has been presented annually during the SWAB symposium.
Marlies Hulscher is an implementation scientist with a background in social health sciences and epidemiology. She has been Professor of Quality of Care for Infectious Diseases at the Department of IQ Health since 2011. She is committed to improving the quality of care for patients with infectious diseases, in hospitals and public health care. Focus areas in the research programme are antibiotic policy and infection prevention.
As a research team, Marlies and her colleagues focus on measuring and improving the quality of care for patients with infectious diseases, focusing on daily practice. This has led to scientific publications, instruments to measure the quality of antibiotic use (so-called quality indicators), effective improvement approaches, handbooks, practice guides, guidelines and (inter)national courses to train researchers and professionals in measuring and improving quality.