Readers are cautioned that inclusion within this list does not indicate the calculator will necessarily be accurate, updated, or ready for use in clinical practice. Users are encouraged to explore each individually to gain a deeper understanding of what these tools have to offer. A link to each is provided as is a brief description.
This got me thinking about what online tools there are for dosing vancomycin in our current technologically advanced world.Īfter performing internet searches the following free online vancomycin dosing calculators were identified.
In a recent AJHP article, Heil and colleagues detailed an outline for implementing AUC-based vancomycin dosing, which is anticipated to be an important component of the long-awaited update to the vancomycin dosing guideline published in January of 2009.
With the frequent need for therapeutic drug monitoring many people (including pharmacists, physicians, nurses, administrators, and lab staff) are interested in how to dose vancomycin safely, effectively, and efficiently. Through these programs the physician (a diagnostic expert) identifies the need for the antibiotic and the pharmacist (a drug expert) is empowered to change doses and order labs. In addition, many hospitals now employ vancomycin pharmacy-to-dose programs. Understanding pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (Pk/Pd) is key for informed decision making and there are several approaches to dosing vancomycin. Some institutions have no local guidance and it is left to provider discretion, some use strict algorithms, some use loosely structured weight-based dosing, some employ AUC:MIC-based dosing (area under the curve: minimum inhibitory concentration), and others use a combination of these and/or other strategies. The goal with vancomycin is to give enough drug to treat the infection, while not giving too much drug to cause toxicity (typically concern is for nephrotoxicity). There are numerous questions that must be answered to guide reasonable decision making and there are frequently multiple courses of action that can be considered acceptable in the same clinical scenario. Once ordered, dosing and monitoring of intravenous vancomycin is often a challenge given that every patient case is unique and typically requires at least daily assessment of clinical factors. In the hospital setting intravenous vancomycin is frequently employed to provide broad Gram positive coverage, which includes methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Vancomycin is an antibiotic that has utility versus infections occurring in many locations ( e.g., skin and soft tissue, bone, heart, lung, blood) and has antibacterial activity against an array of clinically relevant Gram positive bacteria ( e.g., Streptococci, Enterococci, Staphylococci). Many people are interested in dosing and monitoring vancomycin, hopefully this article will assist in discussing some available resources.Īuthored by: Timothy P. Can provide useful descriptions of the data.This article aims to identify and discuss free online vancomycin dosing calculators. Can continue adding compartments to fit more complex concentration-time profiles. `\(k_e\)` Elimination rate constant (/time) `\(K_a\)` Absorption rate constant (/time) bolder process (**absorption**, **distribution**, **metabolism**, and **elimination**). Pharmacokinetics is the study of the fate of chemical in a living organism through. **M**etabolism - How is it broken down and transformation? **D**istribution - Which tissue organ it will go? The study of the movement of chemicals in and out of the body (“what the body does to the chemical”) # Pharmacokinetics (PK) / Toxiccokinetics (TK) Associate Toxicologist California Environmental Protection Agency Postdoctoral Research Associate Texas A&M University Research Associate Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety And Health, Ministry of Labor # PhD in Bioenvironmental Systems Engineering National Taiwan University # MS in Safety, Health and Environmental Engineering National United University font125 Postdoc Texas A&M Superfund Decision Science Core
# Session 1: Overview of Pharmacokinetic Models and Computational Toolkits Session 1: Overview of Pharmacokinetic Models and Computational ToolkitsĬlass: center, middle, inverse, title-slide