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Summary: Objectives: Difficult‐to‐treat invasive fungal infections require infectious diseases expert consultation to improve treatment outcome and increase survival rates. Methods: The European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) intends to provide expert help free of charge by a newly founded ECMM Expert Consultation Service for medical centres around the globe seeking advice when there is no fungal infection consultant available. The expert consult will provide recommendations and broad expertise on difficult‐to‐treat invasive fungal infections (eg azole‐resistant Aspergillus species, Candida auris, mucormycosis) to improve diagnostic and therapeutic management and outcome. Results: The initiative plans global outreach through video conferencing between ECMM Excellence Centers and treating physicians. FungiScope® registries will be used to structure case information and to evaluate the impact of the collegial advice system at regular intervals. Advice will follow recent guidelines, and EQUAL Scores will be used to measure guideline adherence. Conclusions: Infectious diseases expert consultation should be an integral component of care for patients with difficult‐to‐treat invasive fungal infections. The ECMM Expert Consult will attend to this matter on a global scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Background: The reliability of diagnostic criteria for invasive fungal diseases (IFD) developed for severely immunocompromised patients is questionable in critically ill adult patients in intensive care units (ICU). Objectives: To develop a standard set of definitions for IFD in critically ill adult patients in ICU. Methods: Based on a systematic literature review, a list of potential definitions to be applied to ICU patients will be developed by the ESCMID Study Group for Infections in Critically Ill Patients (ESGCIP) and the ESCMID Fungal Infection Study Group (EFISG) chairpersons. The proposed definitions will be evaluated by a panel of 30 experts using the RAND/UCLA appropriateness methods. The panel will rank each of the proposed definitions on a 1‐9 scale trough a dedicated questionnaire, in two rounds: one remote and one face‐to‐face. Based on their median rank and the level of agreement across panel members, selected definitions will be organised in a main consensus document and in an executive summary. The executive summary will be made available online for public comments. Conclusions: The present consensus project will seek to provide standard definitions for IFD in critically ill adult patients in ICU, with the ultimate aims of improving their clinical outcome and facilitating the comparison and generalizability of research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]