About
Our Objective
ENASPOC aims to combat Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), and keep antibiotics effective, by supporting the roll-out of existing, proven technologies and tools that positively impact antibiotic prescribing and strengthen antibiotic stewardship in the treatment of respiratory illnesses in primary care. This includes CRP POCT and complementary strategies including guidance, training, and delayed prescribing in the right cases.
ENASPOC plans to support the creation of country-based action plans to deliver behaviour change, alongside guidance, financial clarity in use of POCT, and the gap between evidence and practice. The first countries in scope are Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.
The Expert Group
The Expert Group on CRP point of care testing to guide antibiotic prescriptions for respiratory illness is a multidisciplinary team working together around a common objective: to define European guidance on the use of CRP POCT and complementary strategies to promote optimal use of antibiotics and to mature antibiotic stewardship.
This guidance is based on an extensive review of clinical evidence, group discussion, and experience.
The Expert Group is comprised of healthcare professionals with strong practical and/or research experience on the topic of AMR and CRP POCT, and antibiotic stewardship. While united by a common objective, they represent a diversity of perspectives from different healthcare settings and from different countries of varying maturity with regards to antimicrobial stewardship and CRP POCT adoption.
Background
The starting point of the initiative was the Antibiotic Stewardship Conference in November 2022 in Brussels: From Expert Consensus to European-wide Action at the Point-of-Care.
The Expert Group presented their consensus statements, and stakeholders from healthcare systems across various European countries—Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK—started to collaborate and initiate national action plans.
The Expert Group
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Ivan Gentile (Castellammare di Stabia 1972) is full professor of infectious diseases at University of Naples Federico II, Director of the Residency Program of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and Chief of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Federico II University hospital.
He has worked on several topics concerning infectious diseases. Among those, he has significantly contributed to advancing the knowledge on the management of hepatitis B during pregnancy and in the therapy of chronic hepatitis C with direct acting antiviral agents. He also worked in the field of infections by multiple drug resistant bacteria and in optimizing antimicrobial stewardship programs. Since the advent of COVID-19 pandemic, he also dedicated himself on the clinical research on covid-19 participating in several clinical studies on pathogenesis and treatment of this disease.
He has carried out several projects targeted to general population on screening of HCV, HBV, and HIV infection as well as on the wise and prudent use of antimicrobials.
He belongs to several national and international society (SIMIT, SITA, EASL, SIMA, ESCMID). He is an active member of UNESCO Chair of Health Education and Sustainable Development of Federico II University.
He is author of about 235 published papers as well as several books and book chapters in the field of Infectious Diseases.
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Hasse Melbye, born in Oslo in 1950, started his medical career as a general practitioner in North Norway. He combined clinical work and research at Tromsø University and wrote his PhD on pneumonia in primary care in 1992. A main finding was that the inflammatory marker C-reactive protein (CRP) was useful in the diagnosis of pneumonia. The thesis also showed that GP’s too often interpreted abnormal lung sounds as signs of pneumonia. As professor of general practice from 1999 he continued his research on CRP, lung sounds, and other diagnostic clues in respiratory medicine, such as pulse oximetry and lung function testing. He has participated in several international research projects on lower respiratory tract infections, such as the EU funded project GRACE. As head of the General Practice Research Unit at UIT the Arctic University of Norway, he has led an international project on COPD exacerbations. He has also led studies on lung diseases in the repeated health survey The Tromsø Study, and as retired professor he is leading the research on lung and heart sounds from this population-based survey.
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Oliver Van Hecke is Associate Professor at the Ghent University in Belgium, Director at the WHO Collaborating Centre Family Medicine and Primary Health Care in Ghent and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. His research broadly focuses on ways to optimize antibiotic prescribing and reduce the impact of drug-resistant infections in community settings. This broadly encompasses four areas: developing clinical decision-support tools; evaluating rapid diagnostic tests for common infections; promoting cross-discipline efforts to improve antibiotic prescribing; and making antibiotic awareness campaigns more impactful. He has forged academic partnerships with researchers in Melbourne and Cape Town with a focus on enhancing antibiotic stewardship initiatives in primary care. He is a member of the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Community Healthcare MedTech and In-vitro diagnostics Co-operative (MIC) which provides a focal point for early collaboration between the diagnostics industry and academia.
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Rogier Hopstaken is a general practitioner (GP) in Primary Health Care Center Hapert en Hoogeloon in the Netherlands and he is a guest researcher at the Department of General Practice, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands.
His special interest is point-of-care testing (POCT). He is involved in diagnostic research projects and POCT implementation initiatives in collaboration with various universities and the laboratory world. He has contributed to research publications and book chapters, particularly in the field of diagnostic testing, lower respiratory tract infections, sepsis, and C-reactive protein POCT. Dr Hopstaken is co-author of the Dutch NHG guideline on Acute cough, and principal author of the Dutch multidisciplinary guideline on POCT in primary care. He is chairing the special interest group for POCT of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA).
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Andreas Plate is a MD and specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases. He is based at the Institute of Primary Care at the University of Zurich and the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. He works in the field of health services research. The focus of his research activities are projects on the quality in prevention and therapy of infectious diseases in primary care. He is particularly interested in the use of antibiotics in the primary care sector in general as well as specific for respiratory tract infections and urinary tract infections.
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Jan Verbakel’s unique interdisciplinary collaborative background allows him to connect disciplines such as primary care, biotechnology and epidemiology. He is a clinician with experience in primary care point-of-care test research and risk prediction research focussing on risk prediction modelling for clinical conditions, as part of the newly established EPI-Centre, of which he is the co-founder.
He has a strong interest in other conditions, such as chronic kidney disease, gynaecologic cancers and heart failure.
He holds a professorship position since 2017 at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven, Belgium, where he is involved in research and teaching. He combines this with a Senior Clinical Researcher-post at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, UK, and a part-time appointment in an active GP practice in Leuven as a GP partner and trainer. He is a member of the Working Group POCT of the Belgian National Commission on Clinical Biology and appointed advisor (expert panel) to the European Commission in the field of in-vitro medical devices.
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Lars Bjerrum is a Professor at Copenhagen University, PhD. graduated as Medical doctor and specialized in Family Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology. He was the Editor for the Danish Drug Catalogue (2002-2020) and Chief Editor for the Danish textbook of General Practice, and a Member of the National Antibiotic Advisory Board (2010-2020).
In addition, he is the Head of the Vocational Training program for General Practice in South-Denmark (1991-95) as well as the Supervisor for > 60 Ph.D.’s and post-docs, and > 100 master- and bachelor students. He leads courses at more than 200 vocational training courses for GPs.
His main scientific focus areas are Antimicrobial resistance, Point of Care testing, antibiotic use in general practice, elderly patients in primary care, and pharmacoepidemiology.
He is the coordinator for the EU financed project “HAPPY AUDIT” with participation of 650 GPs from six different countries, work-package leader for the UC-CARE project and work-package leader for the EU project HAPPY PATIENT. He is author to 133 peer reviewed publications and 11 book chapters.
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Carles Llor is a primary care doctor, born in 1963 in Reus, Catalonia, Spain, graduated as a medical doctor from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1987, specialist in Family and Community Medicine since 1991 and obtained the PhD in medicine at the University Rovira i Virgili in 1996.
He is now working as a GP in the Catalonian Institute of Health at the Via Roma Health Centre, Barcelona and is Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense. His research interests are the respiratory and urinary tract infections, the use of point-of-care tests in infectious diseases in primary care, the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations, the rational use of antibiotics, and the ethics in research. Coordinator for the EU financed project “HAPPY PATIENT”.