Antibiotics are not without risk. They can cause adverse effects, medical complications (e.g., C. difficile infections), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), negative social impacts and decreased patient quality of life. AMR means losing access to essential treatments, turning everyday infections into complicated, life-threatening illnesses.

Any use of antibiotics can contribute to AMR, but over-prescribing or inappropriate use can accelerate it. Therefore, everyone needs to do their part and use antibiotics wisely.

Over 90% of all human antimicrobial consumption occurs in the community setting. Many of these prescriptions are for viral conditions that do not require an antibiotic. MD Snapshot-Prescribing provides an opportunity to reflect on your antibiotic prescribing practices and make necessary practice changes.

The dispensing information in PIN is entered manually at the community pharmacy level. While it’s rare, manual data input increases the risk of errors. If you notice an error on your MD Snapshot-Prescribing, please let us know by emailing AIR.Inquiries@cpsa.ca, so we can connect with the dispensing pharmacy about record correction.

There are several things you can do to get the most out of your prescribing profile:

• Read the whole thing. In addition to your personalized prescribing data, there is information on patients on multiple medications and/or receiving prescriptions from multiple prescribers.
• Review and reflect on your prescribing. Ask yourself what is working well in your practice and what you might need to modify. MD Snapshot‐Prescribing is a tool of self-reflection—your data is just one of many factors (patient, clinical and system) that impact your prescribing practice. Consider the information in your Snapshot within the context of your practice.
• Talk to your peers. Ask what has worked well for them and their patients. You may be able to help each other.
• Take advantage of our resources. To help you improve your practice, we have helpful links, additional information, support material and clinical resources available in our Resource bank.
• Claim Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits. Review your Prescribing Snapshot and claim uncertified Mainpro+ credits under the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC) Assessment category. You can also complete a Linking Learning exercise to earn five Mainpro+ certified credits. Members of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) can claim MOC Section 3 credits. For details, refer to our Continuing Medical Education document.
• Begin a Physician Practice Improvement Program (PPIP) activity. MD Snapshot-Prescribing can be used as your source of objective data in PPIP’s practice-driven quality improvement activity. More information is available on our website.

Good prescribing practices begin with a good education. We frequently update our tools and resources to bring you the best and latest information, support best practices and help you deliver the safest and most effective patient care possible.