Turning Surveillance Into Strategy: Strategic AMR Publications and Why They Matter in 2026

Australia cannot manage what it does not measure. But measurement alone is not enough.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant and growing public health challenge affecting patient safety, hospital capacity, aged care quality and the long-term sustainability of our health system.

Australia boasts enviable, longstanding national surveillance programs that sit under the Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia (AURA) project umbrella and produce high-quality data (such as NAUSP and NAPS). Data of this calibre is essential to guide investment, standards, and practice change.

The challenge is not a lack of data. It's about translating that data into publications that people actually read, understand and act on. That gap between surveillance and strategy is where I work. And the recent release of the Sixth Australian report on antimicrobial use and resistance in human health (AURA Report) allowed me to tackle it at a national scale.

Sixth AURA Report: Australia's AMR Story

Produced by the Australian Centre for Disease Control, the AURA Report provides a comprehensive analysis of antimicrobial prescribing and resistance trends across hospital and community settings using the latest available data, from 2022 to 2024. It is more than another surveillance report – it is a strategic barometer of how well we are preserving the effectiveness of antimicrobials in this country.

The AURA project is about accountability. Surveillance is not a passive exercise — it is a strategic instrument. It enables clinicians, health services, policymakers and the broader community to understand where we are making progress and where urgent attention is needed.

The AURA report shows:

• Where prescribing is improving — and where it is not

• Which resistance trends demand urgent attention

• Why antifungal resistance is an escalating concern

• What meaningful progress looks like

• What actions healthcare professionals and the community can take to prevent AMR.

I had the privilege of contributing to this important national publication through a multifaceted role that spanned strategy, content and delivery.

Reimagining the Narrative

Technical surveillance reports can risk being data-dense but inaccessible, especially when they are hundreds of pages long and text-dense.

My role involved content strategy: reimagining the look and feel of the report (shorter and sharper), and how the findings were structured and communicated to ensure that complex data was translated into accessible, clear and actionable insights. The objective was simple: make the data available to all Australians to engage with and impossible to ignore.

Writing and Editing

I wrote and edited the report with data and input from subject matter experts (AURA program partners and stakeholders), many of whom I had closely collaborated with on the previous AURA 2023 report, to ensure:

• Technical accuracy

• Consistency of terminology

• Coherence across chapters

• Accessibility for a wide audience

Balancing scientific and technical information with clarity was central to the task. The language needed to maintain precision while remaining readable for everyone, from leaders and policymakers to clinicians to everyday Australians.

Project Management and Delivery

National reports of this scale demand disciplined coordination. My role also encompassed project management — managing stakeholder input, robust quality assurance processes and ensuring that each project milestone was delivered on time.

Why Strategic AMR Publications Matter

If we are serious about safeguarding modern medicine, surveillance must translate into action.

The question for all of us is simple: what will we do differently with this data?

You can read the Sixth Australian report on antimicrobial use and resistance in human health (AURA report) here.

If you are interested in collaborating on strategic AMR publications, surveillance reporting or complex multi-stakeholder projects, I welcome the conversation.

Balancing scientific and technical information, with an understanding of the audience, is key to producing strategic AMR publications. Every Australian can play a role in stopping AMR. To do that, there needs to be an understanding of what it is, why it matters and what role government, healthcare professionals and the general public can play.

About the author: Melissa Waine | BSc/BCom (Hons 1), UNSW and Garvan Institute of Medical Research | Member, Australasian Medical Writers Association | AMR communication specialist | melissawaine.com