About the Norwegian Surveillance System for Antimicrobial Drug Resistance (NORM)
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The Norwegian Surveillance System for Antimicrobial Drug Resistance (NORM) is a national health registry that was established in 2000. In 2003, the register was regulated according to the Health Registries and Processing of Health Information Act of 18 May 2001.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health is the data controller for NORM. The Department of Microbiology and Infection Control at the University Hospital of North Norway is the data processor and is responsible for operating the registry and reporting results in consultation with the Advisory Council for NORM, which includes suppliers and users of the register data.
NORM’s role is to:
- collect and process data about antibiotic resistance of microbe isolates to determine the incidence and prevalence of antibiotic resistance and monitor changes over time
- drive, promote and provide a basis for research to understand why microbes develop antibiotic resistance, with a view to promoting and developing preventive measures in the treatment of infectious diseases
- provide a basis to give health advice and information on measures that could prevent development antimicrobial drug resistance to the public and local, regional and central health authorities
- give the Norwegian health authorities a foundation to contribute to international statistics within specific areas.
Since 2004, NORM has been responsible for Norway’s participation in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS), which was renamed as the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) in 2009.