Leveraging Existing and Soon-to-Be-Available Novel Diagnostics for Optimizing Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship in Patients With Respiratory Tract Infections.

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) drive many outpatient encounters and, despite being predominantly viral, are associated with high rates of antibiotic prescriptions. With rising antibacterial resistance, optimization of prescribing of antibiotics in outpatients with RTIs is a critical need. Fortunately, this challenge arises at a time of increasing availability of novel RTI diagnostics to help discern which patients have bacterial infections warranting treatment.