FLOREY: An eHealth antimicrobial stewardship tool demonstrated for RTIs

FLOREY, is an eHealth/mHealth antimicrobial (AM) stewardship tool which offers a new alternative to antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections (RTIs). When an antibiotic is not indicated, FLOREY will support patient self-care, satisfying the patient’s expectation for an active treatment approach whilst also providing a safety net for both the patient and practitioner. It will provide a range of direct cost savings (reduced cost of prescriptions and unnecessary appointments) and indirect cost savings (reduced spend on treating drug-resistant infections) to the healthcare system. FLOREY, developed by AccuRx and the University of Southampton, will consist of 2 main platforms: a practitioner side software package, and patient side SMS message interface. Machine learning and big data analysis will automatically analyse patients' symptomatic progression and offer outputs based on a chosen logic pathway. lt will give a practitioner access to a data-driven diagnosis, rather than current empirical techniques, made with a snapshot of information, significant recall bias and no visibility of outcomes. Ultimately, FLOREY will reduce the number of AM prescriptions. This will be highly beneficial to the entire healthcare industry, improving the lifespan of current AM drugs and those in development.