Pediatric ambulatory stewardship initiative surpasses prescribing targets through education, tele-stewardship, and mobile access to evidence-based guidance

Toronto, ON and Tampa, FL – August 18, 2026 — DoseMe, a leading provider of clinical decision support technologies, today highlighted the success of a pediatric ambulatory antibiotic stewardship initiative at Vanderbilt Health. As health systems work to address antibiotic resistance and improve outpatient prescribing, Vanderbilt Health is showing the impact of a comprehensive approach to pediatric antibiotic stewardship.

By integrating stewardship education, tele-stewardship support, and Firstline clinical decision support into clinical workflows, Vanderbilt Health is helping providers make more informed prescribing decisions and deliver more consistent, evidence-based care.

Clinicians achieved a 7.5% increase in narrow-spectrum antibiotic prescribing year-over-year, surpassing the program’s goal of 5%. The results reflect Vanderbilt Health’s ongoing commitment to improving outpatient antibiotic prescribing through a combination of stewardship education, tele-stewardship initiatives, clinician engagement, and accessible point-of-care clinical guidance.

Vanderbilt Health launched its outpatient antibiotic stewardship program in 2019, recognizing the challenges of standardizing evidence-based prescribing practices across multiple ambulatory and walk-in clinic settings. While the organization initially developed clinical pathways and order sets within the electronic medical record (EMR), adoption proved difficult due to workflow barriers and time constraints faced by busy clinicians.

“We found that even well-designed clinical resources can be underutilized if they don’t fit naturally into clinician workflows,” said Sophie Katz, Medical Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship. “Clinicians were seeing dozens of patients a day, and logging into desktop workstations simply to access treatment algorithms created friction that limited adoption.”

To address this challenge, Vanderbilt Health expanded access to clinical guidance through Firstline, providing clinicians with mobile access to antimicrobial stewardship resources, treatment recommendations, antibiotic dosing guidance, and infectious disease content directly from their smartphones.

“Clinicians always have their phones with them, and Firstline allowed us to put trusted guidance directly into their hands,” said Katz. “The platform serves as a one-stop shop for infectious diseases guidance, making it easier for providers to quickly access the information they need while caring for patients.”

As part of the stewardship initiative, Vanderbilt Health supplemented guideline access with ongoing education, including targeted “Quiz Time” learning modules focused on respiratory tract infections, quarterly stewardship meetings, educational pearls, and tele-stewardship support across participating sites.

The program’s success demonstrates a broader trend in healthcare toward delivering clinical decision support in ways that align with real-world clinical workflows rather than relying solely on traditional EMR-based tools.

“Healthcare organizations continue to recognize that clinical decision support is most effective when it is accessible, actionable, and integrated into the way clinicians practice,” said John Hardesky, CEO of Firstline, a DoseMe company. “Vanderbilt Health’s results show how combining stewardship expertise, clinician education, and mobile access to evidence-based guidance can drive measurable improvements in prescribing behavior.”

Outpatient antibiotic stewardship remains a critical public health priority as healthcare organizations work to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use, combat antimicrobial resistance, and improve patient outcomes.

The Vanderbilt Health initiative highlights how digital clinical decision support can help bridge the gap between evidence and practice by delivering guidance when and where clinicians need it most.

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About DoseMe

DoseMe is the provider of Firstline and DoseMeRx clinical decision support technologies that enable proactive, personalized care. Firstline is a mobile-first platform making treatment guidance accessible to every clinician, anywhere. DoseMeRx delivers clinically validated PK/PD models to individualize precision dosing in seconds. DoseMe’s evidence-based clinical intelligence helps reduce adverse drug events, antibiotic overuse, improve adherence to stewardship guidance, and provides clinicians a clear path to optimal care. For more information and real-world success stories, visit Success Stories


About Vanderbilt Health

Vanderbilt Health, a growing academic health system headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the largest and most prominent academic systems in the Southeast, providing patient care, conducting research and training the next generation of health professionals. With 43,000 employees, including 4,930 employed clinicians, Vanderbilt Health accommodated more than 3.5 million patient visits last year at its eight hospitals and 180-plus clinic locations. In 2025, Vanderbilt Health contributed $22.13 billion to the regional economy while also providing more than $1 billion in total community benefit and investment including patient financial assistance, medical research, health professional education, community grants and unreimbursed costs for government health programs. For more information, visit VanderbiltHealth.com