This month we are publishing a recent contribution to the Compass about the applicability of Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling in pediatric populations, by Constantinos Pistos, on behalf of the Alternative Sampling Strategies Committee. This application promises to overcome some of the challenges of performing TDM in children, however plasma to whole blood relationships must be demonstrated, and often new therapeutic windows must be established for clinical applicability. Read on!

Constantinos Pistos
Associate Professor of Toxicology
Analytical Toxicology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry
West Chester University, PA, USA

This month we hear from Ranita Kirubakaran, clinical pharmacist working in Seberang Jaya Hospital, Penang, Malaysia. At the Rome 2022 IATDMCT congress, Ranita won the Young Scientist poster prize for her work titled ‘Matters close to the heart: adaptation of tacrolimus models to inform therapeutic drug monitoring using the PRIOR approach.’ This work was conducted as part of her PhD while she was based at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. Ranita has since returned to Malaysia and shares about her experiences. Looking forward to further excellent work from this bright Young Scientist! Read on!

Ranita Kirubakaran, PhD
Clinical Pharmacist
Head of Medication Therapy Adherence Clinic (MTAC)
Seberang Jaya Hospital, Penang, Malaysia

Can you guess what happened? A drug-drug interaction case series

This month we hear from Florian Lemaitre, who recently contributed this piece to our newsletter Compass on behalf of the Immunosuppressive Drug Committee. Florian uses three cases to illustrate unusual drug-drug interactions affecting people on regular immunosuppressant drugs. Can you guess what happened in each case?

Florian Lemaitre
Assistant Professor, School of Medicine
Clinical Pharmacologist
Rennes University Hospital, France

This month we are publishing a recent piece from our newsletter 'Compass'. The piece is a contribution from Debbie Marriott, one of our Directors of Education and chair of the Anti-infective Committee. In the piece Debbie considers therapeutic drug monitoring of echinocandins and presents three clinical cases to highlight the main take-aways from a recently published review on the topic. Congratulations to the committee for an excellent review, and a big thanks for Debbie for the piece, which helps us consider the clinical application of the findings.

Deborah JE Marriott

Senior Staff Specialist, Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology

St. Vincent's Hospital

Sydney, Australia