Dr Ian Gould

Biography

Dr Gould is an Honorary Professor at Aberdeen University and recently retired (2023) Consultant Microbiologist at the Royal Infirmary in Aberdeen, Scotland.  

In 1976, Professor Gould graduated in medicine from Edinburgh, Scotland and trained in clinical microbiology and infectious disease in the United Kingdom, Canada and Africa.  For fifty years his main professional interest has been control of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  

Professor Gould served as advisor on antibiotic resistance and prescribing to the Scottish and UK Departments of Health, the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics, the International Organisation for Epizoonosis, the European Commission, the World Health Organization and Government agencies abroad.  In addition, he was Coordinator of the European Union projects European Surveillance of Antibiotic Reistance (ESAR) and Antibiotic Resistance, Prevention and Control (ARPAC).  He was instrumental in starting Scottish AMR and antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs.

Professor Gould is a past President of the International Society of Chemotherapy and the Scottish Microbiology Association.  He is a board member of several international journals and has over 400 published scientific papers and communications on antibiotic stewardship and resistance in peer-reviewed journals, standard texts and specialist books.  He has edited four books on AMS and AMR, recently co-founded the Journal of Global Antibiotic Resistance. He formed the first British working group on AMS in hospitals and was a longstanding member of the Cochrane working group on hospital AMS. Previous associations have included a longstanding collaboration with colleagues in Slovakia and the position of honorary professor at Trnava University. He was awarded an Honoris Causa doctorate in Public Health by St Elizabeth University, Bratislava. 

Prizes and Awards

In 2025, Professor Gould was ranked sixth worldwide for lifetime achievement in research into antimicrobial stewardship by ScholarGPS and nineteenth for research into antibiotics. 

Research Overview

Research Interests

1)  Thresholds study

 We are assessing the factors that alter antibiotic use thresholds for different resistant bacteria with a view to better informing our AMS strategies.

2)      Chlorhexidine resistance-implications for AMR

We are surveying Chlorhexidine resistance and its links to AMR with a view to controlling both in Grampian.

Current Research

IMPORTANT RECENT PUBLICATIONS

1.  Gould IM. VRSA-doomsday superbug or damp squib? (2010).  The Lancet Infect Dis.10 816-8.

2.  Lawes T, Edwards B, López-Lozano JM, Gould IM.  Trends in Staphylococcal aureus bacteraemia and impacts of infection control practices including universal MRSA admission screening in a hospital in Scotland, 2006-2010 retrospective cohort study and time-series  intervention analysis.  (2012) BMJ Open 2 doi:pii e000797.

3.  Noble DW, Gould IM.  Antibiotics for surgical patients: the faster the better? The Lancet Infectious Diseases (2012) 12 741-742. Invited Commentary

4.  Davey P, Brown E, Charani E, Fenelon L, Gould IM, Holmes A, Ramsay CR, Wiffen PJ, Wilcox M.  (2013)  Interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing practices for hospital inpatients.   Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Apr 30;4:CD003543. doi: 0.1002/14651858.CD003543.pub3.

5.  Laxminarayan R, Duse A, Wattal C, Zaidi AK, Wertheim HF, Sumpradit N, Vlieghe E, Hara GL, Gould IM, Goossens H, Greko C, So AD, Bigdeli M, Tomson G, Woodhouse W, Ombaka E, Peralta AQ, Qamar FN, Mir F, Kariuki S, Bhutta ZA, Coates A, Bergstrom R, Wright GD, Brown ED, Cars O.  (2013)  Antibiotic resistance - the need for global solutions Lancet Infect Dis. (12):1057-98. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70318-9.

6.  Lawes T, López-Lozano JM, Nebot C, Macartney G, Subbarao-Sharma R, Dare CR, Edwards GF, Gould IM. (2015)  Turning the tide or riding the waves?  Impacts of antibiotic stewardship and infection control on MRSA strain dynamics in a Scottish region over 16 years: non-linear time series analysis.  BMJ Open.  26;5(3):e006596. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006596

7.  Lawes T, Lopez-Lozano JM, Nebot CA, Macartney G, Subbarao-Sharma R, Dare CR, Wares KD, Gould IM.  (2015)  Effects of national antibiotic stewardship and infection control strategies on hospital-associated and community-associated meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections across a region of Scotland: a non-linear time-series study.  Lancet Infect Dis. Dec;15(12):1438-49. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00315-1.

8.  Gould IM, Lawes T.  (2016)  Invited Commentary:    Antibiotic stewardship: prescribing social norms.  The Lancet  thttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00007-6  Published online February 18, 2016.

9.  Davey, P., Marwick, C.A., Scott, C.L., Charani, E., Mcneil, K., Brown, E., Gould, I.M.,Michie,S.(2017) Interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing practices for hospital inpatients  Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 1 45 5.

10.  Lawes, T., Lopez-Lozano, J.-M., Nebot, C.A., Macartney, G., Subbarao-Sharma, R., Wares, K.D., Sinclair, C., Gould, I.M.(2017) Effect of a national 4C antibiotic stewardship intervention on the clinical and molecular epidemiology of Clostridium difficile infections in a region of Scotland: a non-linear time-series analysis The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 17 (2), pp. 194-206

 11.  P, Gonzalo-Jiménez N, Gould IM; THRESHOLDS study group. A nonlinear time-series analysis approach to identify thresholds in associations between population antibiotic use and rates of resistance. (2019) Nat Microbiol.  4  1160-1172.

12.  Zamudio R, Oggioni MR, Gould IM, Hijazi K.   Time for biocide stewardship? (2019)  Nat Microbiol  4  732-733