International PAHO Consultant
PAHO, Argentina
I received my medical degree with honors in 1985 in Argentina, and I was trained in Internal Medicine, Healthcare Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases at the “Italian Hospital of Buenos Aires”. I also received a master’s degree in Business Administration and Clinical Effectiveness. With more than 20 years of experience in the field of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) programs implementation, I conducted my first study evaluating the impact of AMS activities, in a tertiary care teaching hospital, in Argentina in 1992.
After this experience I led two multicenter studies in healthcare-associated infections surveillance and IPC programs implementation (IRIQ Project 2002; VALIDAR Project 2004), that allowed to validate the National nosocomial infections surveillance system (NNIS) methodology in Argentina.
In 2016, I led a multicenter study in 81 centers of Argentina evaluating the implementation of AMS programs in Adult Intensive Care Units and General Wards at Argentinean Hospitals (PROA-Argentina Project). This study allowed to evaluate the progress and performance of AMS programs, the appropriateness of antimicrobial prescriptions and consumption, generating a local benchmark.
This project created an opportunity to expand the work to the region and in 2018-2019, I successfully led a similar study but in 77 ICUs in nine Latin-American countries (PROA-LATAM Project).
I co-authored the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs Implementation Guide of the Panamerican Society of Infectious Diseases and I published several papers on AMS and IPC studies in Latin America.
Our research group has developed open access tools (www.proanet.org platform and PROAnet app mobile) for effective AMS program implementation in hospitals, allowing training, data entry, analysis, and monitoring of validated indicators.
Currently, I am a senior consultant for the Pan American Health Organization and in this role, I am collaborating in the development of policy guidance and interventions to combat antibiotic resistance, supporting local governments through Latin America and the Caribbean.