European confederation of medical mycology expert consult—An ECMM excellence center initiative

Abstract

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. Summary Objectives: Difficult-to-treat invasive fungal infections require infectious diseases expert consultation to improve treatment outcome and increase survival rates. Methods: The European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) intends to provide expert help free of charge by a newly founded ECMM Expert Consultation Service for medical centres around the globe seeking advice when there is no fungal infection consultant available. The expert consult will provide recommendations and broad expertise on difficult-to-treat invasive fungal infections (eg azole-resistant Aspergillus species, Candida auris, mucormycosis) to improve diagnostic and therapeutic management and outcome. Results:The initiative plans global outreach through video conferencing between ECMM Excellence Centers and treating physicians. FungiScope ® registries will be used to structure case information and to evaluate the impact of the collegial advice system at regular intervals. Advice will follow recent guidelines, and EQUAL Scores will be used to measure guideline adherence. Conclusions:Infectious diseases expert consultation should be an integral component of care for patients with difficult-to-treat invasive fungal infections. The ECMM Expert Consult will attend to this matter on a global scale.

EQUAL Score Scedosporiosis/Lomentosporiosis 2021: a European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) tool to quantify guideline adherence

“…We included this aspect in the score even though this recommendation was not given in guidelines as it is considered a key element by leading mycologists. 23 …”

State of Medical Mycology at German Academic Medical Centres: A Survey of the German‐Speaking Mycological Society (DMYKG) and the Paul‐Ehrlich‐Society for Chemotherapy (PEG)

“…Apart from stronger support and recognition of the National Reference Centers at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology and the University of Würzburg, as well as the two consiliary laboratories at the Robert Koch Institute and the Charite University Berlin 17,24,25 and strengthening the networking among experts, current avenues to enhance Medical Mycology support for academic centres and patients include the ongoing ECMM initiative to elaborate guidelines for diagnosis and management of fungal diseases, the creation of formally audited ECMM Excellence Centers and the ECMM Expert Consultation Service for medical centres 10,26,27 . It is to be hoped that these initiatives will lead to improved delivery of Medical Mycology support and ultimately, improved prevention and management of invasive fungal diseases in immunocompromised and severely ill patients.…”

“…Further limitations of the study were the lack of inclusion of paediat- Service for medical centres. 10,26,27 It is to be hoped that these initiatives will lead to improved delivery of Medical Mycology support and ultimately, improved prevention and management of invasive fungal diseases in immunocompromised and severely ill patients.…”

OUP accepted manuscript

“…Initiatives such as ECMM Expert Consult provide tools to help capacitating and empowering institutions worldwide. 11 Improving access to rapid diagnostic methods, such as molecular tests (which were available for only half of institutions), would also strengthen infection control practices in the region.…”