Australian Passive AMR Surveillance (APAS)

Australian Passive AMR Surveillance (APAS) is a major component of the AURA Surveillance System, which is coordinated by the Department of Health and Aged Care.

APAS collects, analyses and reports on de-identified patient-level AMR data contributed voluntarily by 10 public and private pathology services across Australia, several of which capture state-wide public patient data via their laboratory information systems.

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Background

APAS was established by the Commission in 2015, with the support of Queensland Health, which enabled access to the OrgTRx system as the supporting information technology infrastructure. All participating APAS laboratories have access to their own data within the system for the preparation of regular local reports and antibiograms to support the antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention efforts of the health services they serve. APAS does not hold patient-identified data.

The data captured through APAS is used to report on AMR data in the form of:

  • Longitudinal datasets for specified organism-antimicrobial combinations
  • Cumulative antibiograms showing rates of resistance for a range of organisms from a specified specimen type within a time period
  • Tabulations showing the resistance profiles of organism strains isolated during a time period
  • Reporting for individual units within hospitals or health services, or at a state-wide level.

APAS currently holds more than 98 million susceptibility results, providing the largest volume of resistance surveillance data to AURA. These data provide access to geographical and organism-related trends in resistance and inform local, state and national AMR response strategies. 

Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology has also been an important contributor to national passive AMR surveillance through the provision of reports on resistance in isolates referred by hospitals, aged care homes, community and general practices in Queensland and Northern NSW for many years.

Participants in APAS

APAS contributing laboratories include:

  • ACT Pathology (all public and some private Australian Capital Territory health services)
  • Pathology Queensland (all Queensland Health public hospitals and health services)
  • Monash Health, Victoria
  • Alfred Health, Victoria
  • Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospital, Tasmania – combined data from these two contributing laboratories capture the majority of public patient data for Tasmania
  • NSW Health Pathology laboratories that provide services to:
    • Sydney and South Western Sydney Local Health Districts (LHDs)
    • South Eastern Sydney and Illawarra Shoalhaven LHDs (including the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network)
    • Hunter New England, Mid North Coast and Northern NSW LHDs
  • Mater Pathology Queensland (Queensland public and private patients)
  • SA Pathology (public health catchments for South Australia)
  • PathWest Laboratory Medicine, WA (all Western Australian public hospitals)
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Antimicrobial resistance, use and stewardship
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