Why this course

A hospital antibiogram tells our clinicians, organism by organism, which antibiotics are still likely to work in our own hospital. It guides empirical therapy, shapes the hospital antibiotic policy and gives the antimicrobial stewardship team a baseline to measure against.

Most hospitals already hold the data needed to build one, in laboratory registers, Excel records or the laboratory information system. What is often missing is a method. Duplicate isolates are counted more than once, surveillance swabs are mixed in with clinical specimens, and percentages are reported on a handful of isolates. The result is an antibiogram that clinicians do not trust, or no antibiogram at all.

This course teaches the method, step by step, using the CLSI M39 guideline for the analysis and presentation of cumulative antimicrobial susceptibility test data. Over four weeks, we go from raw data to a finished antibiogram.

Who this course is for

  1. Clinical microbiologists and laboratory professionals who hold the susceptibility data and want to turn it into an antibiogram.
  2. Infection prevention and control and antimicrobial stewardship teams who use the antibiogram to guide policy and track resistance.
  3. Clinical pharmacists who use the antibiogram to support empirical prescribing.

What you will be able to do

  1. Apply the CLSI M39 principles, including the first-isolate rule and isolate selection, to your hospital's data.
  2. Collect and clean one analysis period of susceptibility data from registers, Excel records or your laboratory information system.
  3. Build the antibiogram with Excel formulas and PivotTables, using a template you can reuse every year.
  4. Validate the antibiogram, spot errors before release and add the footnotes it needs.
  5. Use the antibiogram to support empirical therapy and antimicrobial stewardship.

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome

    2. What you will learn

    3. How each week runs

    4. The data rule

About this course

How the course runs

The course runs for four weeks, with one topic each week.

  1. Week 1: Concepts and CLSI M39 methodology
  2. Week 2: Data collection and cleaning
  3. Week 3: Building the antibiogram
  4. Week 4: Validation and clinical use

Each week has one 90-minute live online session. Before the session, you read a short pre-read. After it, you do a practice task with your own hospital's data or with the practice dataset we provide. Recordings are available if you miss a session.

You receive the recordings of all four sessions, practice datasets and a reusable antibiogram template.

Faculty

Dr Sai Shruti Iyer
MD (Microbiology), FRCPath. Head of Microbiology and Infection Control, Sankara Eye Foundation India. Co-Founder, MicroQuora India.

Dr Safaa Muneer Ahmed
MD, CIC, FIID, FRCPath (UK), MBA (Hospitals and Health Systems Management). Tenet Diagnostics and Renova Group of Hospitals. Co-Founder, MicroQuora India.

Certificate

You receive a SkillsforMed certificate on completion of the course.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need access to my hospital's data?
No. If you cannot use your hospital's data, you can complete every task with the practice dataset that we provide.

Will any patient information leave my hospital?
No. You replace patient identifiers with codes before you use the data, and nothing you share in the course carries a patient's name or hospital number.

Do I need advanced Excel skills?
No. We build the antibiogram step by step with formulas and PivotTables, and you leave with a template you can reuse.

What if I miss a live session?
Watch the recording and complete that week's practice task.

I took the CLSI and EUCAST course. Is there a fee benefit?
Yes. Participants of the SkillsforMed CLSI and EUCAST programme can join at the early bird fee of ₹3,999.

Join the first cohort

Starts January 2027 · Dates to be announced · Four weeks, live online · Early bird fee ₹3,999 (regular ₹4,999)

Enroll Now