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There has been great controversy as to what differentiates infection of the urinary tract from mere colonization. The term colonization may be considered obsolete, or, it may be viewed as a clinical scenario on the same continuum as infection. The urinary tract is a sterile medium, and therefore, any presence of bacteria in the urine should be regarded as an infection, regardless of symptomatology. The requirement of delineation between asymptomatic and symptomatic bacteriuria occurs at the level of whether treatment is warranted or not. The additional presence of a catheter adds another level of complexity to the clinical equation. Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are the leading cause of secondary nosocomial bacteremia. An estimated 20 % of hospital-acquired bacteremias arise from the urinary tract, and the mortality associated with this condition is about 10 %. This chapter will seek to increase the understanding of the definitions, epidemiology, etiology (including risk factors and microbiology), pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment (including information on antimicrobial drug resistance), complications, and prevention of urinary tract infections.

Point-of-care access to current medical information is easily available to the practitioner through the use of smartphones, iPads, and other personal digital assistants. There are numerous mobile applications (apps) that provide easy-to-use and often well-referenced medical guidance for the infectious diseases practitioner. We reviewed 6 commonly utilized mobile apps available for handheld devices: the Emergency Medicine Residents' Association's (EMRA's) Antibiotic Guide, Epocrates Deluxe, Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Guide, Sanford Guide, the Medscape mobile app, and the Infectious Diseases Compendium. We evaluated several basic infectious diseases topics (including but not limited to endocarditis, vancomycin, and Acinetobacter infection) and attempted to objectively score them for metrics that would help the provider determine which mobile app would be most useful for his or her practice. The Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Guide and the Sanford Guide had the highest cumulative scores, whereas EMRA scored the lowest. We found that no single app will meet all of the needs of an infectious diseases physician. Each app delivers content in a unique way and would meet divergent needs for all practitioners, from the experienced clinician to the trainee. The ability to rapidly access trusted medical knowledge at the point of care can help all healthcare providers better treat their patients' infections.