Towards a framework for prioritizing diagnostics in the global AMR response

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) diagnostics are essential to improving patient outcomes and antimicrobial stewardship, yet decisions about which diagnostics to prioritize remain fragmented, implicit, and weakly linked to real-world impact. Existing frameworks largely assess diagnostic value, feasibility, or performance in isolation, offering limited guidance for prioritization under constrained resources and implementation realities. This Viewpoint proposes a pragmatic framework for prioritizing AMR diagnostics that integrates four domains: scale of the problem, implementability, diagnostic impact, and unmet need. By explicitly surfacing trade-offs across these domains, the framework supports weighted, decision-oriented prioritization rather than ad hoc or market-driven selection. It provides a structured mechanism for establishing global AMR agendas, as well as translating these into actionable national and local priorities. Applying this approach helps explain why certain use cases, such as rapid diagnostics for neonatal sepsis, emerge as high-priority targets for coordinated policy attention, public investment, and innovation.