Optimizing vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring compliance in pediatric oncology: towards personalized medication management

Per Med. 2024;21(4):211-218. doi: 10.1080/17410541.2024.2360386. Epub 2024 Jul 4.

Abstract

Aim: Vancomycin, a crucial treatment for Gram-positive bacteria, necessitates therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) to prevent treatment failures. We investigated the healthcare professional's compliance toward TDM of vancomycin recommendations and follow-up levels. Materials & methods: We collected data from 485 patients who received vancomycin in the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt 57357 medical records system (Cerner) over 4 months, from January to April 2020. Results: Our data shows that only 54% of patients had TDM requests from healthcare professionals for the total patients who received vancomycin treatment. The healthcare professionals' compliance with the recommendations was 91.7%, while the follow-up levels were 66.7%. Conclusion: While overall adherence to recommendations is strong, enhancing compliance with follow-up levels remains a priority for improvement.

Keywords: TDM recommendations; healthcare team compliance; pediatric oncology; personalized medication management; personalized medicine; precision medicine; vancomycin.

Plain language summary

[Box: see text].

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents* / therapeutic use
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Drug Monitoring* / methods
  • Egypt
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Medical Oncology / methods
  • Medication Therapy Management
  • Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Precision Medicine / methods
  • Vancomycin* / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Vancomycin
  • Anti-Bacterial Agents