Aneta Perić

It is true that pharmacists have a lot of workload, but it gives us an opportunity to pose a lot of questions concerning medicines, patients, pharmaceutical care, healthcare, so you can do research work in order to find answers to your questions. It is a challenge and I have accepted this challenge.

Aneta Perić, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Medical Faculty of the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, Serbia. She has also been working as a pharmacist in the Department for Pharmacy at the same institution for twenty years and is Head of the Policlinic Pharmacy.

In her opinion, pharmacists are in a minority in comparison to others in the healthcare system and it is not always easy to be a pharmacist in everyday practice. They are the most accessible people in the healthcare system because patients do not need to make an appointment to see them, and pharmacists have a great responsibility during their work.

This responsibility also requires pharmacists to continuously acquire and improve their knowledge. This time Aneta Perić, PhD, was curious about the association between rates of antibiotic use and hospital-onset Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), especially the monitoring of antibiotic use in hospital which is crucial for identification of potential overuse, underuse and inappropriate use.

A multidisciplinary healthcare team conducted an ecological study in the Military Medical Academy from 2011 to 2021. The analysis focused on antibiotics and the risk of causing CDI. We have noticed a 22% decrease in antibiotic use in the observed period. The overall 11-year increasing trend of hospital-onset CDIs did not prove to be statistically significant. Nevertheless, these results could help more rational prescribing of antibiotics in the targeted units, which is highly needed.