A National Survey of Attitudes and Practices of Physicians Relating to Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Pharmacokinetic Service: Strategies for Enhancing Patient's Care in Saudi Arabia

The aim of the study was to evaluate physicians' perception of the concept of pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring (PK/TDM) and their use in clinical practice. A novel, structured, self-administered questionnaire was designed, validated and distributed to physicians in 3 major citie...

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Veröffentlicht in:International journal of general medicine 2021-01, Vol.14, p.1513-1524
Hauptverfasser: Alrabiah, Ziyad, Alwhaibi, Abdulrahman, Alsanea, Sary, Alanazi, Fars K, Abou-Auda, Hisham S
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:The aim of the study was to evaluate physicians' perception of the concept of pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring (PK/TDM) and their use in clinical practice. A novel, structured, self-administered questionnaire was designed, validated and distributed to physicians in 3 major cities in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam) during a 4-month period. Data were collected on demographics, knowledge and practice of PK/TDM. Attitudes toward integrating these skills into daily clinical practice were also investigated. A total of 724 physicians completed the survey and included in the study. European and North American physicians were found to be more exposed to PK/TDM than other physicians. About 70% of the participants stated that they have applied PK/TDM in their practice, at least, once and most of these were consultants. Only 4.3% of respondents had never checked organ function prior to prescribing narrow therapeutic index drugs. Although the majority (78.4%) perceived PK/TDM as very important to their practice, only 35.3% have tried to calculate drug PK parameters for their patients when necessary. The result of this study showed that the knowledge of physicians about PK/TDM was inadequate. Moreover, the utilization of competent clinical pharmacists trained in PK/TDM was low. An interdisciplinary educational program between the physicians and pharmacist in PK/TDM will lead to a better health care outcome.
ISSN:1178-7074
1178-7074
DOI:10.2147/IJGM.S296731