WHONET Software for the Surveillance of Antimicrobial Susceptibility.

Continuous surveillance of local antimicrobial susceptibility patterns is a must for combating emerging antimicrobial resistance. WHONET is an effective computerized microbiology laboratory data management and analysis program that can provide guidance for empiric therapy of infections, alert clinicians of trends of antimicrobial resistance, guide drug-policy decisions and preventive measures. The program facilitates sharing of data amongst different hospitals by putting each laboratory data into a common code and file format, which can be merged for national or global collaboration of antimicrobial resistance surveillance. The system can be implemented in hospital laboratories of Armed Forces at no additional cost. Cumulative analysis of surveillance data obtained from various hospitals of Armed Forces at higher centers may help in formulating health policies and control measures at various levels.