About

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The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association

The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) is a registered charity, working across the Commonwealth and other countries, to support pharmacists in strengthening healthcare systems through the safe and effective use of medicines; improving access to and quality of medicines and vaccines, and the prevention of diseases and promotion of healthier lifestyles.

About the Prescribing Companion App

Welcome to the Prescribing Companion App! The App is designed to provide healthcare professionals working in both human and animal health, with a core repository of prescribing resources to enable better Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS).  Led by the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) the App hosts together for the first time, both human and animal health guidelines to help drive a OneHealth approach. The  App aims to increase access and awareness to prescribing guidelines and good practice resources at the  point of care; fostering shared learning between countries across human and animal health and aligns to the global One Health approach.

The Prescribing Companion App is intended for use by human and animal healthcare professionals, as a reference resource for guidance on antimicrobial prescribing and AMS activities. The App is not intended for use by the general public and does not replace the advice of a healthcare professional. Each individual country (not the CPA) holds responsibility for reviewing and keeping the resources up-to-date, for their country section.

While the initial scope of the App is AMS, it is designed to be further customized by each country depending on their needs, such as prescribing guidelines, resources and tools from different therapeutic areas outside infections and infectious disease. The App is developed in phases and is a continuous work in progress, with ring-fenced funding until 2027.  Each country is enabled to regularly update and add resources that meet their requirements, ensuring that it truly reflects local needs and usage.

ToolKits

The Prescribing Companion App brings together toolkits to support the countries in Africa and Asia as seen in the home section of the App.  Under each country interface, there are six nodes with the following guidance:

Infections and Infectious Disease Prescribing

This toolkit includes national standard antimicrobial treatment guidelines from countries in the initial cohort. Countries that are interested in using the App will be supported to upload their guidelines.

Other common clinical conditions

Countries can customize this section to include other standard treatment guidelines, for example hypertension guidelines etc.

International AMS and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)

A number of international core modules and good practice guidelines in human health are available for all 22 countries. These are embedded as links to third party websites including WHO and CDC.  Some CPA programme tools and training resources can also be found in this section.

COVID-19 Toolkit 

International resources for COVID-19 management as well as links to country specific guidance hosted on Ministry of Health websites or relevant national authority.

Interventional Recording 

This section is supported by Microsoft Forms. The SPARC team has developed an audit form, which aims to identify the range of interventions made by health workers as a result of using the App. Similar forms can be added to collect a vast range of data.

Animal Health

Due to a current  global scarcity of animal health guidance at both international and national levels, we have identified a few core resources to support animal health practitioners; this section therefore remains a work in progress. Resources include The Food and Agriculture  Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - Action plan on Antimicrobial resistance (2021-2025) and an AMR hub to support veterinarians. Where available, national  standard antimicrobial treatment guidelines for animals have been included.

Accessibility Statement

The App is freely available and has been designed to function offline once toolkits are downloaded.

Development &  Funding 

The App is part of the CPA’s SPARC programme,  funded by the Fleming Fund, which delivered a suite of projects to support  AMS in human and animal health, in up to 22 countries across Asia and Africa. It is developed using the Quris system from Tactuum