AMS Game tournament

Join the AMS Game tournament which will take place on the
24th of November during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week

Learn through gaming

The Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS) has co-created a board game with partners in the UK and Africa to improve capacity among stakeholders in both High-Income and Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), particularly antibiotic resistance, is one of the most challenging global health threats of our time. Even under the shadow of COVID-19, antibiotic resistance posed a substantial threat to patients who developed secondary bacterial infections. AMR is challenging to numerous diseases including HIV/AIDS, typhoid, cholera, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, maternal health, hospital-associated infections, and malaria. AMR is particularly problematic in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) regions where health systems and medical resources, including access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) are limited as well as where socio-economic drivers, like extreme poverty, increase the risk of communicable diseases exponentially.

Tackling AMR requires a multidisciplinary approach. Whether a medical team member is a cleaner, nurse, doctor, pharmacist, or other type of health worker, their contribution towards keeping patients safe from infection is crucial to saving lives.

The antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) game encourages players to explore the practicalities of AMS and the different ways we can all help to reduce AMR.

Effective training and capacity building are vital to the success of stewardship programmes, particularly when staff are new to the concept. The AMS Game makes stewardship training engaging and inclusive. It generates fun and enthusiasm with a serious purpose and clear outcomes.

Players discuss AMS and learn what they can do personally, and collectively, to improve stewardship in their organisation and their community. It will help them to understand the scale of the problem and that we are all part of the solution. The four broad areas addressed in the game are:

Introduction to antimicrobial resistance & stewardship
Appropriate use of antimicrobial agents
Infection prevention and control
Stewardship and surveillance

Teams take turns to answer and discuss a series of questions and case studies about AMR and AMS. There are different levels of complexity so the organiser can select questions to match the needs of each group. The game can be played by all members of staff:

Doctors
Nurses
Pharmacy teams
Laboratory staff
Other clinical staff
Support staff
Cleaners & porters
Students

The game was co-created between partners in the UK and Africa and is equally effective in either a high-income or low-to-middle income setting.

The game was developed by the Commonwealth Partnerships for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme (CwPAMS) in collaboration with Focus Games Ltd.

Support the AMR Tripartite during the tournament
Help us to support the AMR Tripartite (WHO, FAO and OIE) WAAW campaign during the game by wearing something blue, or changing your background to our CwPAMS wallpaper below.

Click to enlarge and save

Sustainability: Buy one Donate one
To help support distribution of the physical board game in LMICs, for each copy of the AMS Game purchased in the UK, Focus Games will donate one copy to a healthcare organisation in one of 24 countries across Africa and Asia supported by the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Fleming Fund. To learn more about the “Buy one, donate one scheme”, visit: www.AMSgame.com

Register to play or facilitate a game session during the tournament

CwPAMS extends a special invitation to all those interested in competing to win an online digital AMS Game subscription to register as a player or facilitator at www.AMSgame.com

Demonstration of the digital AMS Game

Demonstration by Sarah Cavanagh

Ben Simms, CEO of the Tropical Health and Education Trust, UK

The growth of human resistance to antibiotics is often referred to as the ‘silent pandemic’. It is terrifying to think of the impact this is having on modern medicine. There is nothing silent about this game, however. It’s a chance to enjoy learning about AMR and compete with your clinical team as you strive to set the standard for good antimicrobial stewardship in your institution. I look forward to taking you on!

Victoria Rutter, Executive Director of the CPA, UK

Pharmacists have an important role to play in antimicrobial stewardship globally and have done an incredible job of leading AMS teams and championing better use of antimicrobials throughout our CwPAMS programme. We are very excited to launch our AMS board game as an output of this programme. It’s been great fun to put together and we hope many of our friends and colleagues around the Commonwealth and beyond will enjoy playing to enhance their knowledge around antimicrobial resistance and the importance of team dynamics. We look forward to meeting many of you at the online tournament.

Winnie Nambatya, Technical Advisor for Uganda at the CPA, clinical pharmacist and lecturer at Makerere University, Uganda

We cannot deny the fact that antibiotic resistance is upon us now and killing multitudes of people daily. Overuse or inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is said to be some of the factors accelerating this silent pandemic. The AMS game provides basic knowledge on how to best use antibiotics among both health workers and non-health workers. It is never a game when you are losing against an opponent like antimicrobial resistance.

Nancy Ho, Vice President of the CPA, Malaysia

At this milestone of the AMS Game Launch, I feel that this is a defining moment for Mankind when we join initiatives to further fight against Antimicrobial Resistance. Together we shall win!!!

Dr Diane Ashiru-Oredope, Global AMR Lead at of the CPA, UK

Co-creating the AMS game with more than 30 multidisciplinary healthcare colleagues across several African countries and the UK has been an incredibly valuable experience. The game aims to contribute to 4 of the 5 objectives of the WHO’s global action plan on antimicrobial resistance including: (1) Improving awareness and understanding of antimicrobial resistance through effective communication, education, and training, (2) Strengthening the knowledge and evidence base through surveillance and research, (3) Reducing the incidence of infection through effective sanitation, hygiene, and infection prevention measures, (4) Optimising the use of antimicrobial medicines in human health.

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Sarah Cavanagh, International Partnerships Lead at the CPA, UK

Antimicrobial resistance affects us all and good stewardship is one way we can collectively address it. One of the best things about this game is it can be played by entire teams. It is so much fun you don’t realise how much you are learning. I really encourage you to try it out and if you can’t meet face to face you can play online. This game is relatable in any health and social care setting, be these in low-income countries, or in the NHS or anywhere else.

Dr Rao Vadlamudi, President of the CPA, India

Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) is one of the most effective ways to rationalise antimicrobial therapy to improve clinical outcomes and curb resistance. Effective AMS teams should have a physician, pharmacist, nurse, microbiologist, epidemiologist, and an administrative team member. The presence of a pharmacist, an expert on medicines, makes the team most effective. The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association through the CwPAMS programme is developing antibiotic guardians and effective AMS teams in several parts of the Commonwealth, particularly in certain African countries. It is necessary to continuously educate and train these healthcare workers involved in the AMS programmes throughout the Commonwealth and other parts of the world. Deployment of the newly created AMS game would constitute an effective and fun way of developing a competent workforce to tackle AMR. I encourage all interested to participate in this tournament.