HARMONY – the International Union of Microbiology Societies’ European Staphylococcal Typing Network

This 'Perspective' outlines the work of Harmony since its inception as part of the European Union (EU) Directorate General XII (now the Directorate-General for Research) funded project “Harmonisation of Antibiotic Resistance measurement, Methods of typing Organisms and ways of using these and other tools to increase the effectiveness of Nosocomial Infection control”, awarded in 1999. Other aspects of the project comprised the exploration of the feasibility of developing a consensual approach to infection control guidelines, examining the issues of antimicrobial susceptibility standardisation and developing a tool to facilitate the establishment of effective antibiotic stewardship It explains the development of the work on the harmonisation of MRSA typing and the different achievements of european and other partners in this project