Antimicrobial stewardship programs - cost-minimizing or cost-effective?

Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) are aimed to improve patient care and health care outcomes. It is encouraging to find ASP interventions to be cost-saving in many cost-minimization analyses in literature. Nevertheless, the cost-effectiveness of ASP interventions, measured in cost per quality-adjusted life-years, is less well-established. This Editorial aims to explore the barriers in assessing clinical effectiveness of ASPs and provide suggestions to conduct cost-effectiveness analysis of ASPs.