Optimizing design of research to evaluate antibiotic stewardship interventions: consensus recommendations of a multinational working group

Antimicrobial stewardship interventions and programmes aim to ensure effective treatment while minimising antimicrobial-associated harms including resistance. Practice in this vital area is undermined by the poor quality of research addressing both what specific antimicrobial use interventions are effective and how antimicrobial use improvement strategies can be implemented into practice. In 2016 we established a working party to identify the key design features which limit translation of existing research into practice and then to make recommendations for how future studies in this field should be optimally designed. The first part of this work has been published as a systematic review. Here we present the working group's final recommendations.