Sep 6, 2026 · 52 min · 10 segments
In this episode of *Communicable*, Emily McDonald and Josh Davis host Henning Bundgaard and Sami El-Dalati for a discussion on early oral antibiotic switch for endocarditis, focusing on the POET…
Henning BundgaardGuest
Sami El-DalatiGuest
Emily McDonaldHost
Josh DavisHost
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Communicable, the podcast brought to you by CMI Communications, ESCMID's open access journal covering infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.
I'm a physician in general internal medicine, infectious disease trialist and scientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and associate editor at CMI Communications.
So the POET trial, partial oral intravenous antibiotic treatment of endocarditis, was published in August 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
And the study found that in patients with endocarditis on the left side of the heart who were in stable condition, changing to oral antibiotic treatment was non-inferior to continuing intravenous antibiotic treatment.
And even more so, the five-year long-term data published in February 2022 showed that the oral switch strategy was statistically superior to continuing long-term IV therapy.
So while the initial six-month study only looked to prove that oral pills were just as good or non-inferior, the five-year data proved that patients who switched oral antibiotics actually fared significantly better over time.
And so with that, I'm delighted to be co-hosting today's episode with Josh Davis, fellow editor at CMI Communications, looking at oral switch for endocarditis.
And I'm really excited to be talking about the POET trial today, particularly given that the senior author of the trial, Henning Wundgaard, is here with us.
One reason I'm excited is I was reflecting on this and thinking it's one of the trials we talk about in my workplace all the time.
What would they have done in the POET trial? Could we apply the POET trial to this patient, etc.? So it's nice to be able to sit down and talk through it.
One I already mentioned, Professor Henning Bundgaard, who's the senior author of the POET trial and a clinical professor in the Department of Cardiology at the Heart Center at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
And Sammy has published studies looking at the uptake of oral antibiotics for endocarditis after the publication of the POET trial.
Sammy is Clinical Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Endocarditis Program at the University of Kentucky.
Sammy and I have worked together online on endocarditis publication, specifically a guideline for endocarditis.
And we've also corresponded over the years on different strategies to treat endocarditis.
So very happy to have you here today to speak about Oral Switch for Endocarditis.
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Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Communicable, the podcast brought to you by CMI Communications, ESCMID's open access journal covering infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.
I'm a physician in general internal medicine, infectious disease trialist and scientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and associate editor at CMI Communications.
So the POET trial, partial oral intravenous antibiotic treatment of endocarditis, was published in August 2018 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
And the study found that in patients with endocarditis on the left side of the heart who were in stable condition, changing to oral antibiotic treatment was non-inferior to continuing intravenous antibiotic treatment.
And even more so, the five-year long-term data published in February 2022 showed that the oral switch strategy was statistically superior to continuing long-term IV therapy.
So while the initial six-month study only looked to prove that oral pills were just as good or non-inferior, the five-year data proved that patients who switched oral antibiotics actually fared significantly better over time.
And so with that, I'm delighted to be co-hosting today's episode with Josh Davis, fellow editor at CMI Communications, looking at oral switch for endocarditis.
And I'm really excited to be talking about the POET trial today, particularly given that the senior author of the trial, Henning Wundgaard, is here with us.
One reason I'm excited is I was reflecting on this and thinking it's one of the trials we talk about in my workplace all the time.
What would they have done in the POET trial? Could we apply the POET trial to this patient, etc.? So it's nice to be able to sit down and talk through it.
One I already mentioned, Professor Henning Bundgaard, who's the senior author of the POET trial and a clinical professor in the Department of Cardiology at the Heart Center at Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark.
And Sammy has published studies looking at the uptake of oral antibiotics for endocarditis after the publication of the POET trial.
Sammy is Clinical Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Endocarditis Program at the University of Kentucky.
Sammy and I have worked together online on endocarditis publication, specifically a guideline for endocarditis.
And we've also corresponded over the years on different strategies to treat endocarditis.
So very happy to have you here today to speak about Oral Switch for Endocarditis.