9 Designing an environmental AMR surveillance methodology

The design of any study is highly dependent on the objective of the study or surveillance activity. Designing a study on AMR in the environment requires careful planning to ensure that the relevant data is collected and meaningful conclusions can be drawn. Many of the aspects of planning are similar to other AMR study designs such as identification of sampling locations, drafting protocols, logistic planning, lab preparations, and a data analysis plan.

Note that in time- and resource-tight times, collaborating with other initiatives is very useful. Environmental surveillance for other indicators (chemical, pharmaceutical or microbiological) might already be going on, and using their infrastructure could be helpful in saving time and resources.

In the following sections you will touch upon two aspects specific to measuring AMR in the environment: the metrics of surveillance and the AMR indicators. You can look at another aspect, the place and time of sampling, in the extended learning section of the course [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .