Real-Time Pathogen Detection Technologies and Their Impact on Antibiotic Prescribing in Emergency Departments: A Review Study, Advances, Challenges, Limitations and Innovations

Abstract

Pathogen detection technology has transformed ED practices by identifying infectious agents quickly and accurately enough to eliminate issues such as delayed diagnosis, inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, and AMR. There are molecular diagnostics, of which polymerase chain reaction (PCR), CRISPR-Cas systems, next-generation sequencing (NGS), and point-of-care devices are a few examples; they assure high sensitivity as well as specificity, making antimicrobial stewardship, de-escalation of broad-spectrum antibiotics, and targeted AM therapy feasible. Further new emerging trends are AI-driven diagnostics, biosensors, and microfluidic platforms. The further smoothing of the detection process comes in the way of automating workflows, combining heterogeneous datasets, and achieving high-speed decision-making processes. The specificity of these innovations lies with the pathogen; these have the multiplexing, short turnaround times to assure early diagnosis and treatment. It also reduces the usage of empirical treatments, limits the application of antibiotics where they do not need to be applied, and hence limits progression of AMR. Significant drawbacks include a high implementation cost, integration complexity with an already existing healthcare system, and a gap in terms of training that hampers its general adoption. With such challenges, there are areas of hope, like providing subsidies, research together with focused training, etc. These future directions will involve integrating diagnostics with smartphones, universal biosensors, and AI-based real-time analytics. With innovations promising to democratize diagnostics towards resource-constrained settings, it brings equitability in healthcare delivery. Technologies involving real-time pathogen detection may alter the ED workflow, fight back against the AMR challenge, and bring overall health improvement in a faster manner with rapid, reliable, and actionable diagnostics.