Haley Muehlbauer, PharmD
Riverwood Pharmacist Haley Muehlbauer (formerly Noeldner) is the author of a research article on infectious disease and its treatment that was published in the June 2022 issue of “Antimicrobial Stewardship and Healthcare Epidemiology.”
For the completion of her pharmacy residency at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines, Muehlbauer coordinated a year-long research project that focused on antibiotic stewardship in the treatment of infectious diseases, a personal interest of hers.
Muehlbauer and team examined the use of MRSA (a drug-resistant pathogen) PCR nasal swabs for tailoring antibiotic choices in the treatment of illnesses beyond pneumonia infections, including blood stream infections, cellulitis or soft tissue infections, diabetic foot infections and bone/joint infections.
“My preceptor was a pharmacist who specializes in infectious diseases,” explained Muehlbauer. “I worked closely with a great team of physicians and medical residents who were prescribing antibiotics for patients with various infections, including a lot of podiatrists who were treating diabetic foot infections.”
She added: “Our goal was to use MRSA lab results to help guide therapy for patients and decrease the use of antibiotic drugs when possible. We found great data that we presented at an Infectious Diseases Society of America IDWeek annual conference in Fall 2021. Earlier this year, we decided to share the results more widely in ASHE (Antimicrobial Stewardship and Healthcare Epidemiology).”