(Clinical Chemistry. 1998;44:369.)
© 1998 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.
The Role of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Disease Management: Introduction
Leslie M. Shaw
Michael Oellerich
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce St., Philadelphia, PA 19104
Center for Internal Medicine, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
The following series of papers are based on the accumulated
research and practical experience of each author in one or more facets
of therapeutic drug monitoring. These papers were the basis for a 2-day
program sponsored by the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical
Toxicology Division of the AACC and cosponsored by the National Academy
of Clinical Biochemistry. The program, The Role of Therapeutic Drug
Monitoring in Disease Management, was presented at the annual AACC
meeting held July 1997 in Atlanta. The primary purpose of this program
was to critically examine the preanalytical, analytical,
concentration–clinical response, physician education, cost/benefit,
clinical outcome, measurement of pharmacodynamic responses, and new
research opportunities in therapeutic drug monitoring. We hope that the
reader will find these papers challenging, thought-provoking, and
helpful in considering how, in the contemporary laboratory setting, we
can help the process of taking therapeutic drug monitoring to the next
level of practice.
The generous educational grant support for this program from the
following is gratefully acknowledged: Abbott Laboratories, Behring
Diagnostics Inc., Boehringer Mannheim Corp., Chiron Diagnostics, and
Dade International.
