Rethinking “Antimicrobial Resistance”: Focusing on Patients instead of Pathogenic Organisms

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has received widespread attention in the press and considerable resources from governments and global organizations, and that has resulted in many new drugs but not in better outcomes for patients. To achieve better outcomes, researchers and regulators should focus more on a drug’s meaningful clinical benefit to patients and less on the in vitro study of the drug’s ability to inhibit the growth of pathogenic organisms. That requires putting resistance in the context of overall infections and the impact of the human immune response to develop medical interventions that improve the lives of patients.