Dr. Richard Oehler, Professor of Medicine at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, presents a review of bacteremia. Dr. Oehler begins by reviewing the epidemiology, personal and institutional costs of bacteremia. He then discusses blood culture collection and how false positive blood cultures occur. With the recent blood culture bottle shortage of 2024, he emphasizes the new concept of “blood culture stewardship”–when it is most appropriate to order a blood culture versus when it may be unnecessary. Next, Dr. Oehler reviews automated blood culture systems and other related identification technology, with a focus on new methods of blood culture isolate identification such as multiplex PCR and Maldi-TOF. The speaker then contrasts gram positive and gram negative bacteremia in general and by organism. The management of a positive blood culture with regard to treatment and source control is discussed. Lastly, ways to reduce the incidence of bacteremia are shared.