-
>$6B1Annual Cost
-
13M+2Cases / Year
-
53.5%1,3Cost Escalation
-
68%4Inappropriate Rx
-
25%5Sepsis Cases
-
87k5Associated Deaths
If this were any other condition, it would be called a public health emergency.
Yes.
It’s a crisis.
The UTI Crisis:
Hidden In Plain Sight.
Findings from an expert panel on diagnostic failure, systemic burden, and the imperative for change.
We’ve normalized diagnostic failure — and it’s costing patients and the system more than we realize.
Five voices, one diagnosis.
Spanning health policy, laboratory medicine, urology, patient advocacy, and research — convened to examine the true scope of the UTI crisis from clinical, economic, public health, and patient-centered perspectives.
-
Health Policy
David Nash, MD, MPA
Professor of Health Policy, Thomas Jefferson University; Founding Dean, College of Population Health; Pathnostics External Advisory Board Member
-
Laboratory Medicine
Frank R. Cockerill, MD
Founder, Trusted Health Advisors; Former Chair, Infectious Diseases and Laboratory Medicine Pathology; Former CEO, Mayo Clinic Laboratories
-
Urology
Glenn Werneburg, MD, PhD
Physician-Scientist, Urology; Incoming Director, Multidisciplinary UTI Clinic, Stony Brook University
-
Patient Advocacy & Research
Melissa Kramer, PhD
Founder, UTI-Free; Co-founder, Alliance for Patient-Centered UTI Research; Developer of the first validated patient-reported outcome measure for recurrent UTI
-
Patient Advocacy
Hannah Helgeson
Operations Manager and Board Secretary, Let’s Talk UTI; Patient Advocacy Representative
-
Moderator
Jeremy Schubert, DSL, MPH, MBA
Chief Commercial Officer, Pathnostics, Inc.
The problem isn’t lack of data.
It’s lack of accurate direction.
The current standard of care fails clinical teams on two critical axes. Speed without accuracy is dangerous; data without direction is insufficient.
-
Culture insufficiently detects.
Struggles with polymicrobial infections. Limited detection capabilities miss fastidious and other hard-to-detect pathogens.
-
AST insufficiently directs.
Cannot account for polymicrobial interaction when providing antibiotic direction. As many as 50%6 of UTIs are polymicrobial.
-
PCR resistance genes are not a proxy.
PCR resistance genes have low concordance with actual phenotypic resistance — the only signal that matters at the bedside.
One Consensus.
Four Imperatives for Change.
-
01
Acceptance of Misdiagnosis
We have normalized a diagnostic failure rate that would be unacceptable in any other branch of acute medicine.
-
02
Obsolete Standards
The 70-year-old gold standard of culture is increasingly disconnected from the modern reality of complex patient profiles.
-
03
Unmeasured Consequences
The longitudinal cost of diagnostic failure — readmissions, AMR, and patient suffering — remains largely invisible to CFOs.
-
04
A System Not Designed to Learn
Real-world evidence must bridge the gap between bench science and bedside decision-making to evolve the protocol.
The complete narrative, citations,
and the case for an evolved protocol.
A short download — and a useful one to share with your clinical team, your medical director, or your board.
Get the Report →References
- Carreno et al., Open Forum Infect Dis, 2019.
- Flores-Mireles et al., Nat Rev Microbiol, 2015; Simmering et al., Open Forum Infect Dis, 2017.
- Wattengel et al., Am J Infect Control, 2020.
- Wagenlehner et al., Int J Antimicrob Agents, 2011.
- Dantes et al., MMWR, 2023; StatPearls Urosepsis.
- Vollstedt et al., J Surg Urol, 2020.
Pathnostics, Inc. · 1298R01-0526