The WHO on Firstline

About the Partnership

Firstline has partnered with the WHO to give health professionals in every country, free access to the very best antibiotic prescribing knowledge.

The Reality of AMR

Local Susceptibilities

Antimicrobial Resistance is a global health challenge that is directly responsible for over 1 million deaths each year, and is associated with 5 times that number. This is broadly equivalent to the death toll from HIV and malaria combined.

The spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogens is accelerated by the inappropriate prescription and use of antimicrobial medicines. Therefore it is vitally important that healthcare providers are empowered to prescribe antimicrobials appropriately.

Expert Guidance is Needed

Local Susceptibilities

Treating infections is extraordinarily complex. Healthcare providers must account for a multitude of factors including clinical presentation, microbiology, pharmacology, cost and more. Furthermore, these complex decisions usually need to be made by non-infectious disease specialists, without diagnostic results, and sometimes in a medical emergency.

To stop the spread of AMR, the world’s healthcare providers need quick access to expert guidance that makes it simple to prescribe antimicrobials appropriately.

WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Book

The WHO has provided guidance since 1977 on which medicines are essential for safe and effective care, but not on how they should be used. In a new step, the AWaRe Antibiotic Book provides detailed evidence-based guidance on 34 common infections in primary health care and hospital settings for adults and children.

Following the principles of AWaRe for the 39 antibiotics listed on the EML and EML for children, recommendations are given for empiric prescribing, including the choice of antibiotic, dose, and duration. Local specificities of the healthcare system, and prevalence of resistance among common pathogens causing infections should always be considered when using the book.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General WHO, address to Minister Champagne of ISED announcing AWaRe Antibiotic Book launch.

Mobile-Optimized Guidance

In addition to the full-length WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Book, there is a clear need for a quick-reference, user-friendly and portable resource for clinicians to carry while seeing patients.

Leveraging the ubiquity of smartphones globally, a mobile-optimized version of the guidance is available on Firstline to ensure equitable access for resource-limited nations and accessibility at the point of care, even with limited internet connectivity.

Mobile optimized guidance Mobile optimized guidance Mobile optimized guidance

"The WHO AWaRe antibiotic book on Firstline will make it simple for healthcare providers to make evidence-based prescribing decisions, resulting in better outcomes for millions of patients and the preservation of vital medicines for all of humanity."

Mike Long, Chief Clinical Officer, Firstline

Key Supporters

Firstline has received funding and ongoing support from across Canada that has significantly enabled partnering with the WHO and secured our commitment to global distribution of the WHO's guidance for years to come.

Innovation Science and Economic Development

Ministry of Innovation Science and Economic Development, Government of Canada The Ministry of Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED) is the ultimate source of funds provided by the Digital Supercluster. However ISED also supported and guided Firstline’s navigation of national governmental and intergovernmental processes. The involvement of ISED highlights a successful public-private collaboration in Canada and underlines that Canadian companies and academic institutions, operating in service of the greater good, and striving to address humanity’s greatest issues can indeed be adopted at every level, including the United Nations.

Canada's Digital Supercluster

Canada's Digital Supercluster logo The Digital Supercluster provided research and development funding to Firstline as part of a project aiming to accelerate the flow of clinical knowledge in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The novel technology created as part of this project will underpin the future of Firstline’s collaboration with the WHO. Enabling localization of the WHO’s global guidance, while continuing to receive WHO updates provides the best of all worlds - global clinical knowledge allied with local specificity. Like many of the best investors, the Supercluster’s commitment to Firstline extended beyond funding and they have been an essential advocate for, and supporter of Firstline. Firstline’s collaboration with the WHO would likely not have been possible without their support.

One Health Consortium, University of Calgary

One Health Consortium, University of Calgary As well as being the very first customer of Firstline, University of Calgary have been partners, collaborators and supporters of Firstline on projects since 2015. The One Health Consortium, supported by Alberta’s Major Innovation Fund, invested in Firstline’s underlying technology to enable implementation of the AWaRe classification in point-of-care stewardship guidance. A multidisciplinary team led by Dr John Conly worked with Firstline to define and design the implementation of AWaRe classification with a view to implementation in animal health guidance.

Firstline + WHO Partnership

Other WHO Collaborations