Why Antibiotics and Infections Make Clinicians Nervous

Antibiotics are one of those areas in medicine that seem impossible to master, and yet you can’t escape them. Everyone uses them, for better or for worse.

In the era of seemingly all-knowing chatbots and 100-page guidelines for every problem, finding information has never been easier.

What truly matters, however, is the ability to contextualize, to distinguish what is relevant from what is not, and to apply it to a real patient in front of you.

That is the real challenge.

How I Help You Make Better Clinical Decisions

There is a logical pattern behind antimicrobial therapy that every clinician can understand, regardless of specialty or area of practice. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

If you understand what you’re doing, you won’t get stuck. And you are far less likely to make a serious mistake.

That is why my lectures and cheat sheets focus on:

  • Helping you internalize the underlying logic that applies across different infections

  • Highlighting the most common and dangerous mistakes we see in real clinical practice

  • Addressing frequent dilemmas and sources of confusion

  • Answering the questions I most often get from fellow clinicians about infections and antibiotics

These materials will make navigating guidelines and recommendations much easier. Instead of passively following them, you’ll learn to anticipate their conclusions, understand their limitations, and recognize when they don’t apply to the clinical situation in front of you. Ultimately, you will make smarter, safer, and more defensible decisions at the bedside.

One Membership. Everything I Teach.

Access all courses, mini-courses, lectures, and clinical updates in one place.

What You Get with Your Membership

A structured way to think about antibiotics, organized by real clinical categories and accessible anytime.

Antibiotics in Clinical Practice: Essential Lessons

START WITH THIS! To master antibiotics efficiently, you need a structured way of thinking. After these lessons, you’ll start to see antimicrobial therapy as a structured system rather than a collection of isolated facts, and you’ll realize that mastering it takes far less time than you might expect.

How a (Smart) Clinician Thinks About Antimicrobial Therapy

When should you start antibiotics, and when is it better to wait? How broad should you go? What do you do when treatment isn’t working? Don’t worry. There is a pattern. Follow this framework and make your clinical decisions simpler, more consistent, and easier to defend.

Upper Respiratory Tract Infections: Bread and Butter in General Practice

Yes, we all know they are usually viral, but how can you be sure? What will happen if we fail to prescribe antibiotics for a bacterial infection! At what point is it ok to start antibiotics? How can we identify complications early, even if we have no diagnostic tests to help us? When should we refer a patient to a hospital, and what are they going to do there?

Community-Acquired Pneumonia: It's Not One Disease

Can you just use any guidelines on pneumonia (IDSA, NICE, etc.), or do the differences between them matter? What crucial tips are often missed or not explained enough in the guidelines? What to do if first-line antibiotics don’t work?

Skin and Soft Tissue Infections: Simple If You Know What to Look For

Do you really need MRSA coverage? There are important differences between Europe and North America that directly affect empiric therapy. Learn how to recognize skin infections that require broader coverage, what that actually means in practice, and when surgical consultation is necessary. Diabetic foot infections and bite wounds are also covered.

Urinary Tract Infections: Why “Easy” UTIs Often Fail Treatment

Why are many guidelines outdated, and why does blindly following them lead to frequent treatment failure? If you don’t have access to national guidelines, how do you choose the optimal empiric antibiotic? What information do you really need? Learn what to consider before prescribing nitrofurantoin or ciprofloxacin, and how urinalysis can mislead you more often than you think.

Anaerobic Infections: Overhyped and Misunderstood

You (almost) never need metronidazole. Unnecessary anaerobic coverage can actually worsen outcomes. Learn when anaerobic coverage is truly justified, which commonly used antibiotics already cover anaerobes, and what else you should do when you suspect an anaerobic infection.

Sepsis and Septic Shock: Empiric Antibiotics Decide Survival

No sepsis guideline clearly answers the most important practical question clinicians face: which empiric antibiotics to start, especially when the source of sepsis is unknown. It’s no surprise that 20–40% of patients receive inappropriate therapy. Here, you’ll learn a simple framework and use a practical cheat sheet to reach fast, defensible, evidence-based decisions to perform far better than current outcomes.

Bacterial Meningitis: Every Hour Counts

All over the world, patients with bacterial meningitis are still diagnosed late, and they still get tretment too late. Don’t have that happen to your patient. It’s really easy to fix!

Hospital-Acquired Infections (CA-UTI, HAP, VAP, Bloodstream Infections)

The antibiotics used here are completely different from those for community-acquired infections. Correct interpretation of microbiological results is essential. Not every isolate requires treatment. Learn when to pull the trigger, and when antibiotics are more likely to cause harm than benefit.

Multidrug-Resistant Gram-Negative Bacteria: Beyond the Guidelines

Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC, OXA-48, NDM)… you know the names. IDSA guidance is excellent, but often too complex and time-consuming for clinicians who don’t specialize in infectious diseases. Here, you’ll learn the underlying pattern that makes these recommendations feel logical and intuitive. Everything fits into a few neatly organized pages.

MRSA, VRE, and the Problems With Vancomycin

The most famous resistant bug: MRSA. We tend to overdo it with MRSA coverage. So learn when to cover it, and how! Also learn how to dose vancomycin correctly and increase the chance of actually killing MRSA without destroying your patient’s kidneys in the process. Learn what other options you have besides vancomycin, what are their pros and cons, and how to cover even the bugs that are resistant to vancomycin.

Endocarditis Demystified

Aminoglycosides yes or no? What about rifampicin? What if I don’t know the cause of endocarditis? It’s all there on a single-page PDF, accompanied by a detailed explainer video.

Clostridioides difficile: Prevention, Treatment, and Recurrence

One of the most problematic hospital-acquired infections. Here, prevention matters as much as treatment. Recurrences are common, and management depends heavily on which therapies are available to you. Learn what to expect, and how to respond.

Spirochetes (Syphilis, Lyme Disease, Leptospirosis): The Common Pattern

These infections share remarkable similarities in treatment. Once you see the pattern, they become easier to remember and far more intuitive.

Duration of Antimicrobial Therapy: How Long Is Long Enough?

This lesson breaks down how long antimicrobial therapy actually needs to last, and why longer treatment frequently causes more harm than benefit. You’ll learn how to move away from arbitrary durations and make rational, evidence-based decisions about when antibiotics can safely be stopped. Also, this lesson contains a simplified dosing chart of the most commonly used antibiotics.

Free lessons (no membership fee)

  • Free

A Clinical Approach to Serious Infections in Adults - What Every Physician Should Know

This is what I wish someone had taught me before I even started working with patients: How to quickly identify conditions that can turn into a disaster if not recognized in time.

FAQ section

Frequently asked questions

Who is this membership for?

For medical students and clinicians who want a clear, practical framework for antimicrobial decision-making in real clinical practice.

What do I get with the membership?

Unlimited access to all courses, video lessons, downloadable cheat sheets, and future updates while your membership is active.

Is this clinical or medical advice?

No. All content is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for clinical judgment, local protocols, or individualized patient care.

Do I need prior knowledge of antibiotics?

No. The content is structured to build understanding step by step, starting from core principles and progressing to real-world applications.

How long do I have access?

You have access for as long as your membership remains active.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. You can cancel your membership at any time. Your access will continue until the end of the current billing period.

About me

I'm Dr. Viktor Kotarski, an infectious diseases specialist and intensivist from Zagreb, Croatia. I graduated from the University of Zagreb School of Medicine in 2010 and completed my residency in infectious diseases in 2018 at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb.

I began my career working on general wards and in the emergency department. Since 2018, I have worked primarily in an intensive care unit specializing in the treatment of severe community-acquired and hospital-acquired infections, including CNS infections. This experience has allowed me to manage infectious diseases across the full spectrum of severity, from mild and self-limited conditions to life-threatening infections caused by multidrug-resistant pathogens.

I have participated in numerous conferences, seminars, and workshops as a lecturer and moderator. During the COVID-19 pandemic, recognizing the need for clearer and more practical education in infectious diseases and antimicrobial therapy, I began creating educational videos and online courses for medical professionals and students. My goal is to help you learn the essential principles I’ve gathered over the years, in a way that is structured, practical, and time-efficient.

I’m confident that my lectures will support your clinical work and, hopefully, make your professional life at least a little easier.

Disclaimer

All content provided on this website and in my courses is intended for educational purposes only and is designed for medical students and healthcare professionals. It does not constitute medical advice and should not be used as a substitute for clinical judgment or individualized patient care. Always consult relevant guidelines and local protocols and make clinical decisions based on the specific circumstances of each patient.

© 2026 Dr. Viktor Kotarski. All rights reserved.