Drug Monitoring

The implementation of a mandatory prescription drug monitoring program led to an immediate decrease in opioid prescribing in three surgical specialties, according to findings published in JAMA Health Forum.

Proactive therapeutic drug monitoring vs. standard therapy did not significantly improve clinical remission rates over 30 weeks in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases initiating Remicade therapy, according to study results.

Therapeutic drug monitoring, in which treatments were individually assessed and reviewed, failed to improve remission for patients with a variety of rheumatic diseases who started infliximab, according to a speaker at ACR Convergence.

For some patients with inflammatory bowel disease, treatments can be ineffective, and in patients where they do work, they do not always last.

Differentiating patients with inflammatory bowel disease who have lost response to a biologic used to be considered a “gray zone,” according to Sushama Gundlapalli, MD, MS, a board-certified gastroenterologist at Suburban Gastroenterology Ltd. in Naperville, Illinois.

SAN ANTONIO — In this video, Bincy P. Abraham, MD, MS, AGAF, FACG, Fondren Distinguished Professor in Inflammatory Bowel Disease from Houston Methodist and Weill Cornell Medical College, reviews highlights from her presentation at the American College of Gastroenterology Meeting on therapeutic drug monitoring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Incorporating a pharmacy-driven partnership into one children’s hospital’s antimicrobial stewardship plan decreased therapeutic drug monitoring for children administered IV vancomycin without increasing the risk for later kidney injury, according to findings published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.