Background

Bethany A Wattles is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Child and Adolescent Health Research Design and Support (CAHRDS) Unit. Bethany received her PharmD from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. She also holds an MHA from Western Kentucky University. Bethany completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and a PGY2 Critical Care Pharmacy Practice Residency at Norton Children’s Hospital. She also holds certificates in Teaching, Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Quality & Safety.

Research Interests

• Antibiotic Stewardship
• Quality of Medication Prescribing to Children
• Racial Inequities in Antibiotic Prescribing
• Health Disparities in Pediatric Care

Current Projects and Grants

• State University Partnership: Improving Care Quality for Children Receiving KY Medicaid
• Interventions to decrease antibiotic use, PI
• The impact of a provider feedback intervention on inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in Kentucky children, PI
• Development and validation of a statewide Medicaid provider feedback dashboard for outpatient antibiotic prescribing in children, Co-I
• Patterns of Inpatient Antibiotic Use by Race and Ethnicity in US Children's Hospitals, PI

Selected Publications

1. Wattles B, Vidwan N, Ghosal S, Feygin Y, Creel L, Myers J, Woods C, Smith M. Cefdinir Use in the Kentucky Medicaid Population: A Priority for Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2021 Mar 26;10(2):157-160. doi: 10.1093/jpids/piz084. PMID: 31822897.
2. Wattles B, Vidwan N, Feygin Y, Jawad K, Creel L, Smith M. Antibiotic prescribing to Kentucky Medicaid children, 2012-2017: Prescribing is higher in rural areas. J Rural Health.
3. Wattles B, Jawad K, Feygin Y, Kong M, Vidwan N, Stevenson M, Smith M. Inappropriate outpatient antibiotic use in children insured by Kentucky Medicaid. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol.
4. Poole NM, Wattles BA,El Feghaly RE  Proposed Metrics to Benchmark Antibiotic Prescribing in Pediatric Outpatient Settings. Am J Infect Control. 2021 Sep 4;S0196-6553(21)00583. Online ahead of print. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.028
5. Wattles B, Vidwan N, Smith M (in press). Antibiotic Stewardship Throughout the Primary Care Visit: Opportunities for all Office Staff. Fam Pract Manag. Nov-Dec 2021;28(6):10-14. 
6. Smith MJ, Wattles BA Appropriate Antibiotic Prescribing – The Safer and Less Expensive Choice. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 May 2;5(5):e2214160. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14160. 
7. Wattles BA, Jawad KS, Feygin YF, Stahl JD, Vidwan NK, Stevenson MD, Kong M, Smith MJ. Quality of Antibiotic Prescribing to Children through the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic. Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology 2, no. 1 (2022):E94. https://doi.org/10.1017/ash.2022.235.  
8. Wattles BA, Smith MJ, Feygin Y, Jawad KS, Bhadury S, Sun J, Kong M, Woods CR. Recurrent Antibiotic Use in Kentucky Children with 6 Years of Continuous Medicaid Enrollment. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2022 Aug 14;piac079. https://doi.org/10.1093/jpids/piac079
   
   

Selected Conference Presentations

1. Health Equity Considerations in Antibiotic Prescribing, The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Webinar (2023)
2. Stewardship Considerations for Rural Settings, PAS Workshop: Expanding Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship: Novel Strategies, Settings, and Equity Considerations. Pediatric Academic Society Meeting (2022)
3. Tracking and reporting of outpatient antibiotic use: What metrics to use and how to measure them, IDWeek Workshop: Expanding your Influence to Improve Antibiotic Use in Outpatient Settings (2021)
4. Quantity vs. Quality: Measuring Outpatient Antibiotic Use, Pediatric Pharmacy Association (PPA) Spring Conference (2021)
5. Antibiotic Stewardship: Resilient communities can prevent resistant bacteria, Kentucky Public Health Association Annual Conference (2021)
6. Appropriate Antibiotic Use: A Team Effort, Kentucky Rural Health Association Annual Conference (2019)
7. Outpatient Antimicrobial Stewardship for the Health-System Pharmacist, Kentucky Society of Health-System Pharmacists Fall Conference (2019)
8. Pediatric Antibiotic Stewardship: Translating Inpatient ASP Success to Outpatient Settings, Pediatric Pharmacy Association Fall Conference (2019)
9. Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship for Kentucky Pharmacists, Kentucky Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting and Convention (2019)
10. Pediatric Antibiotic Use in Kentucky Medicaid, International Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Conference (2019)