Exploring challenges for infectious diseases diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine in 2023 in German speaking countries: A One-Health approach to Diagnostic Stewardship

Exploring challenges for infectious diseases diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine in 2023 in German speaking countries: A One-Health approach to Diagnostic Stewardship | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Exploring challenges for infectious diseases diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine in 2023 in German speaking countries: A One-Health approach to Diagnostic Stewardship Anna Schwabe, Martin Siegel, Ahmed Abd El Wahed, Jenny Bischoff, and 10 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6289246/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Background Diagnostic steps are often overlooked in antimicrobial stewardship programs, however, incorrect tests may lead to unnecessary treatments, increased costs, adverse health outcomes, and reduced antimicrobial drug efficacy. This One-Health-oriented study addresses interprofessional cooperation, knowledge and needs for improvement, thereby identifying problems along the diagnostic pathway and potential targets for diagnostic stewardship interventions. Methods: A web-based survey (166 items) among German-speaking healthcare workers in human and veterinary medicine was conducted using a snowball sampling approach. Data were analyzed descriptively and using t-tests and chi-squared tests. Specific questions to assess diagnostic knowledge were included, error rates for the different groups were computed. This paper presents analyses of the domains ‘interprofessional cooperation’, ‘knowledge level’ and ‘perceived need for improvement’. Results: Responses from 2,464 people were analysed. The 2,091 senders of microbiological samples comprised approximately 70% prescribers (physicians, veterinarians) and 30% allied healthcare workers, e.g. nurses. Around 50% of prescribers and 30% of allied health care workers (nurses, medical assistants, etc.) rated their diagnostics knowledge as good. Physicians had higher error rates than veterinarians when answering questions testing the knowledge level; medical assistants had higher error rates than physicians. Physicians reported delegating diagnostic-related tasks more often than veterinarians. Major reasons for not delegating were personnel unavailability and poor perceived reliability of allied health care workers (p<0.001). Respondents indicated that they would appreciate additional information when requesting tests (cost, minimal sample volume, transport time, time-to-result) . Conclusions: Our data reveal knowledge gaps in all surveyed health care workers and a lack of available information in numerous domains at the time of testing, pointing towards possible targets for diagnostic stewardship interventions. Infectious diseases Diagnostics Antimicrobial stewardship Interdisciplinary collaboration medical education Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Supplement.docx DiagnosticStewardshipFigures.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers invited by journal 26 Apr, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 22 Apr, 2025 Editor invited by journal 01 Apr, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 01 Apr, 2025 First submitted to journal 01 Apr, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6289246","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":607148698,"identity":"f339f7c8-b0ba-4b97-b54a-41ab998cbdee","order_by":0,"name":"Anna Schwabe","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University Hospital Bonn","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anna","middleName":"","lastName":"Schwabe","suffix":""},{"id":607148699,"identity":"0f4e03fd-3f68-4251-bd0e-20db848bfa7b","order_by":1,"name":"Martin Siegel","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Technische Universität 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This One-Health-oriented study addresses interprofessional cooperation, knowledge and needs for improvement, thereby identifying problems along the diagnostic pathway and potential targets for diagnostic stewardship interventions.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMethods: \u003cbr\u003e\n A web-based survey (166 items) among German-speaking healthcare workers in human and veterinary medicine was conducted using a snowball sampling approach. Data were analyzed descriptively and using t-tests and chi-squared tests. Specific questions to assess diagnostic knowledge were included, error rates for the different groups were computed. This paper presents analyses of the domains ‘interprofessional cooperation’, ‘knowledge level’ and ‘perceived need for improvement’.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eResults: \u003cbr\u003e\n Responses from 2,464 people were analysed. The 2,091 senders of microbiological samples comprised approximately 70% prescribers (physicians, veterinarians) and 30% allied healthcare workers, e.g. nurses. Around 50% of prescribers and 30% of allied health care workers (nurses, medical assistants, etc.) rated their diagnostics knowledge as good. Physicians had higher error rates than veterinarians when answering questions testing the knowledge level; medical assistants had higher error rates than physicians. Physicians reported delegating diagnostic-related tasks more often than veterinarians. Major reasons for not delegating were personnel unavailability and poor perceived reliability of allied health care workers (p\u0026lt;0.001). \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;Respondents indicated that they would appreciate additional information when requesting tests (cost, minimal sample volume, transport time, time-to-result) .\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConclusions:\u003cbr\u003e\nOur data reveal knowledge gaps in all surveyed health care workers and a lack of available information in numerous domains at the time of testing, pointing towards possible targets for diagnostic stewardship interventions.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Exploring challenges for infectious diseases diagnostics in human and veterinary medicine in 2023 in German speaking countries: A One-Health approach to Diagnostic Stewardship","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-18 02:07:10","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6289246/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-26T10:56:07+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-04-22T15:08:40+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2025-04-02T02:45:49+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-04-01T20:30:59+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"BMC Health Services Research","date":"2025-04-01T20:29:54+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"bmc-health-services-research","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"bhsr","sideBox":"Learn more about [BMC Health Services Research](http://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"https://www.editorialmanager.com/BHSR/default.aspx","title":"BMC Health Services Research","twitterHandle":"BMC_series","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"BMC Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6d8e4c19-bf0e-41c3-8b91-c9fe07e7b10d","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 18th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-18T02:07:10+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-18 02:07:10","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6289246","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6289246","identity":"rs-6289246","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}