Today I came across an interesting perspective on antimicrobial resistance, a phenomenon that, as an infectious diseases physician, commands a great deal of my attention. In The Innovator's Prescription, the diagnosis of many infectious diseases is described as having moved from a stage in which diagnosis and treatment was intuitive, expert-led, and hypothesis-driven to a more precise stage in which diagnoses is largely exact and response to therapy predictable (think strep throat).
The book goes on to make the point that antimicrobial resistance, by rendering our standard treatments obsolete, may reverse this trend relegating us back to a stage in which response to treatment is not predictable and treatment regimens may require a lot of expert-led contemplation and hypothesis testing (think multi-drug resistance Acinetobacter).
At least this fascinating and dire analysis predicts job security for my colleagues and me.