Expert-in-the-loop AI helps clinicians choose the right antibiotic, or none at all, where no infectious disease specialist is available

RALEIGH, N.C., Nov. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Arkstone launched Arkstone Next, an expert-in-the-loop AI platform that gives clinicians infectious disease guidance at the point of care. It serves sites where expertise is hardest to find: rural health clinics, urgent care centers, and skilled nursing and long-term care facilities.

Too Many Antibiotics, Too Little Expertise
According to CDC's new Antimicrobial Resistance Threats Report, the germs it tracks cause 9.7 million infections and 50,800 deaths in the U.S. each year. Overprescribing drives that resistance. CDC estimates that at least 28% of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. In urgent care alone, nearly half of antibiotics prescribed for common respiratory illnesses aren't needed. In nursing homes, up to 70% of residents get an antibiotic each year, and as many as 75% of those prescriptions are unnecessary or inappropriate.

Patients pay for antimicrobial resistance with increased drug side effects and treatments that fail. Facilities pay for it in readmissions, longer stays, and audit findings. Treating just six common resistant infections costs the U.S. more than $4.6 billion a year.

Most small providers have no infectious disease specialist, and susceptibility results alone don't tell a clinician what to prescribe." Arkstone Next fills that gap: helping clinicians choose the right drug, dose, and duration, or no drug at all.

"The biggest challenge clinicians face isn't a lack of information. It's turning information from many sources into the right decision, quickly," said Ari Frenkel, MD, MPH, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Arkstone. "Arkstone Next puts infectious disease expertise in the hands of every clinician, whether they work in a rural clinic, an urgent care center or a nursing home."

AI Clinicians Can Trust
Arkstone Next builds on OneChoice®, Arkstone's clinical decision support technology, which has guided treatment for two million cases over nearly a decade. Unlike general-purpose AI, Arkstone's models are trained, validated and governed by infectious disease experts, and every recommendation comes with citable clinical guidance. Organizations can involve their specialists to shape the guidance clinicians receive.

"Clinicians will only use AI if they can trust it, and that trust has to be earned through clinical expertise," said Dr. Frenkel. "With Arkstone Next, experts actively guide the intelligence behind every recommendation."

What Arkstone Next Includes

• ARKIE: An AI assistant, trained and validated by Arkstone's clinical experts, that helps clinicians work through infectious disease questions and interpret diagnostic results in moments instead of hours.
• The OneChoice Portal: Brings Arkstone's guidance and reports into clinicians' daily workflow, not just when a lab report arrives.
• Precision ASP: Helps facilities run their antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) and helps meet CDC and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) requirements with less administrative work.
• Access where clinicians work: Guidance is available in the electronic health record (EHR), on the web and on smartphones.

"Arkstone Next has empowered our clinicians to quickly determine the right treatment for our urgent care patients," said Jamal Samaha, Chief Growth Officer at Local MD, which operates ten urgent care clinics in Illinois and Indiana. "Ultimately, Arkstone Next helps us improve patient outcomes while minimizing treatment and readmission costs."

With Arkstone Next, clinicians spend less time searching for answers and more time with patients. Healthcare providers can cut unnecessary antibiotic use, reduce costs, and simplify stewardship compliance.

About Arkstone
Arkstone is a healthcare technology company that brings expert-in-the-loop AI to infectious disease decision support. Through OneChoice® and Arkstone Next, Arkstone gives clinicians evidence-based, patient-specific guidance to treat infections appropriately, improve patient outcomes and combat antimicrobial resistance.

Learn more at www.arkstone.ai or contact info@arkstone.ai.

Media Contact
Corey Marshall
1-833-933-ARK-3

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SOURCE Arkstone