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Searching for an ideal infectious diseases specialist – CM perspective

The nature of infectious diseases (ID) has changed significantly over the past decades. Many ID have successfully been eradicated through vaccination and the course of some infections has changed due to improved standard of life. On the other hand, changes in life style and longer life expectancy have promoted the emergence and spread of new ID. In spite of rigorous attempts to control hospital care associated infections these infections are becoming a growing problem in modern medicine. The appearance of multiply resistant organisms and the shortage of new antibiotics in the pipeline have placed further demands on developing expertise in the difficult field of antibiotic stewardship. Therefore, the profession of an ID doctor in the 21st century is a very complex one. He or she should have good skills and knowledge in recognizing traditional infectious diseases even those that are believed to be eradicated or not frequent in the area of practice. However, over the past decades infectious diseases with typical clinical presentation and a well defined pathogen have been to a significant extent replaced by infections whose symptoms overlap with the symptoms of the underlying diseases in the same patient or can not be easily differentiated from other causes of systemic inflammatory response syndrome. Therefore an ID doctor has to have good communication skills in dealing with other colleagues of different specialties and should be used to work in a team, appreciating different skills brought by different disciplines. From a clinical microbiologist point of view an ideal infectious disease specialist should recognize that the field of clinical microbiology (CM) has undergone the same transformation from mostly research and public health oriented microbiology towards microbiology at the patient bedside. In many patients only individual approach and team work will produce satisfactory diagnosis and treatment of infection. The fact that skills and competencies of modern ID and CM doctors overlap to a greater extent than with other specialties makes a solid ground for a close collaboration and partnership between these two professions. This is important in the field of clinical practice as well as in the field of research. There is a growing number of literature related to infectious diseases and anyone involved in the management of such patients should have a basic knowledge in research methodology and be competent in practicing evidence based medicine.

Ideal infectious diseases specialist

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