Urinary Tract Infections: Improving Clinical Management and Outcomes

Unless otherwise noted, P.A.C.E.™ accreditation will expire six months after the live webinar.

Reduce the Burden on Hospital Laboratories

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) cost an estimated $6 billion in healthcare expenditures every year. In the U.S., they are responsible for a 21% hospital readmission rate and a 2.3% mortality rate. With more than 250 million UTIs diagnosed annually worldwide, they’re both the most common human bacterial infection and the most common reason for prescribing antibiotics.

The clinical laboratory diagnosis of a UTI typically includes a urine culture, a procedure that requires certified technicians, takes up to 48 hours for results, and is estimated to cost between $9 and $13. Automated urinalysis tests may provide quicker results, but have less sensitivity and specificity, which can lead to less effective patient care.

Proper test management of the numerous samples and their high costs is critical for smooth laboratory workflows and accurate patient diagnosis and treatment. More rapid delivery of diagnostic test results can help reduce the administration of unnecessary antibiotics, facilitate antibiotic stewardship, and otherwise improve patient care.

In this P.A.C.E.-accredited Fisher Healthcare webinar, Rangaraj Selvarangan, PhD, will discuss the costs of UTI testing and potential strategies for reducing their impact on the workload of hospital laboratories. He’ll also review newer technologies for diagnosing UTIs and the correlation between rising antibiotic resistance and inappropriate antibiotic treatments.

Learning Objectives

This webinar will help you:

• Explain the test times and expenses, treatment options, and health outcomes for UTIs
• Describe available technologies for diagnosing UTIs
• Discuss the correlation between antibiotic resistance and inappropriate antibiotic treatments
• Identify opportunities to improve the clinical management of UTI patient care and outcomes

Watch On Demand      Download Slides (PDF, 2.1MB)

This webinar is produced by Whitehat Communications, a provider of continuing education programs in clinical laboratory sciences that has been approved by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. Program. One P.A.C.E. credit hour will be provided for this complimentary, basic-level program.

Rangaraj Selvarangan, BVSc, PhD, D(ABMM), FIDSA

Dr. Selvarangan is the Director of Microbiology and Virology Laboratories and the Director of Research Affairs for Laboratory Medicine at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. He’s a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine within the University of Missouri–Kansas City’s School of Medicine and the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Selvarangan is also an American College of Microbiology-certified diplomat on the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.

Selvarangan holds a Bachelor of Veterinary Science Degree from Madras Veterinary College in India and a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in medical and public health laboratory microbiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Selvarangan is actively involved in teaching and research. He leads a pediatric research program on laboratory diagnostics and studies the epidemiology of infectious diseases and vaccine-related studies in children. He has presented more than 100 times at regional, national, and international conferences and has published more than 90 manuscripts in top-ranked, peer-reviewed scientific journals.