ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Communications and Behavior Change
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1652086
This article is part of the Research TopicHow to Evaluate Digital Health: Novel and Leading Edge Research Methodologies and Approaches.View all articles
Antibiotic Stewardship through clinical data digitization: perceived opportunities and obstructions by medical doctors from semi-urban setting in Central India
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ruxmaniben Deepchand Gardi Medical College, Ujjain, India
- 2Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
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Background: Antibiotic resistance is a global public health concern. Inadequate recordkeeping and irrational antibiotic prescriptions are challenging factors for antibiotic stewardship. This study explores the perceptions of medical doctors in a semi-urban setting in India, regarding the role of clinical data digitization in mitigating antibiotic resistance.Methods: The study was conducted at R D Gardi Medical College located in a semi-urban district of Central India. Qualitative data from 20 medical doctors from government and private sector were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews of which 18 interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's framework.Results: Two major themes emerged from four overarching subthemes: (1) digitization enhances accountability and continuity of care, (2) potential for local antimicrobial surveillance, (3) infrastructural and technological barriers to adoption, and (4) the necessity of government support and capacity building. The participants believe that digitization could help in rational antibiotic prescription if there is a government mandate and infrastructure feasibility in resource constrained settings. Conclusion: Clinicians in semi-urban India perceive the digitization of clinical data as a promising tool to combat antibiotic resistance. However, systemic and infrastructural challenges must be addressed to utilize its full potential.
Keywords: antibiotic, Stewardship, Resistance, digitization, Electronic Health Records, qualitative research
Received: 23 Jun 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kanthali, Bhagwat, Pathak and PUROHIT. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: MANJU PUROHIT, Ruxmaniben Deepchand Gardi Medical College, Ujjain, India
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