The Holy Grail of Infection Prevention – Where diagnosis informs action

Date: 13 Oct 2026 |Time: 1620 - 1650 | Venue: The NAK Auditorium, Academia (SGH Campus) 

Track: Plenary 3

Speakers:

Overview:

Infection prevention (IP) programmes have matured over time, evolving into pragmatic, practice‑based, and systems‑oriented approaches that aim to improve patient outcomes.

A cornerstone of modern IP is the surveillance of healthcare‑associated infections to inform quality improvement and prevention strategies. This surveillance is frequently laboratory‑driven, making the accuracy and appropriateness of diagnostic testing critical to the success of IP efforts. Suboptimal diagnostic practices can generate misleading surveillance data, prompt inappropriate antimicrobial use, fuel antimicrobial resistance, and ultimately undermine infection prevention strategies. Diagnostic stewardship therefore plays a pivotal – yet often under‑recognised – role in ensuring that infection prevention actions are informed by meaningful and reliable data.

Catheter‑associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) surveillance in acute care hospitals exemplifies the intersection where diagnostic stewardship, antimicrobial stewardship, and infection prevention must align. Challenges in urine testing practices, patient selection, and interpretation of results can significantly distort CAUTI rates and distract from true prevention opportunities.

In this lecture, we share our institution’s experience implementing a multidisciplinary, multi‑pronged approach to CAUTI reduction, integrating diagnostic stewardship with antimicrobial and infection prevention strategies. We highlight key lessons learnt, practical interventions, and the impact of aligning diagnosis with action to reduce harm, improve surveillance accuracy, and achieve better patient outcomes.