Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Pharmacogenetic Testing in Northern China

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing are widely used as approaches to improve individualized (personalized) pharmacotherapy. Little is known about TDM and PGx testing services in China. This study is aimed to describe the TDM and PGx testing services in northern China, and to lay the foundation for improving these services.Methods: We developed an electronic survey using online software and disseminated it to 32 public hospitals in northern China from May to July 2019. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program (Ver.27.0).Results: We collected 29 of the 32 questionnaires (90.6% response rate) from public hospitals in seven provinces of northern China. Twenty-two public hospitals (76%) utilized TDM; immune suppressants, antiepileptic drugs and anti-infective drugs were the main drugs monitored. The hospitals that did not provide TDM service were traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and hospitals with a smaller number of hospital beds. Seventeen public hospitals (58.6%) had PGx testing programs. The hospitals that did not offer PGx testing service had a smaller number of hospital beds and had fewer daily outpatients.Conclusion: TDM is available in the vast majority of public hospitals in northern China, although mainly in tertiary hospitals. PGx testing, a newer approach, is less widely available. We recommend that more hospitals be encouraged to provide TDM and PGx testing services and more efforts be directed toward quality control, delivery of results and counseling of patients based on those results.

Therapeutic drug monitoring practices of anti-infectives: An Asia-wide cross-sectional survey

“…To our knowledge, this is the first report concerning TDM practices involving a range of anti-infectives in several Asian countries. Previous studies have been conducted in individual countries, have focused on specific anti-infective classes or have focused on applications in intensive care only ( Ohnuma et al, 2018 ; Choi et al, 2019 ; Hamada et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ).…”

A cross-sectional study of the current situation with therapeutic drug monitoring in Thailand: Requirements, challenges and the role of educational institutions

“…It can be performed independently or integrated into both acute care and ambulatory care settings. While some regions in South America and Europe (Antunes et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021;Green et al, 2022) have incorporated pharmacogenetics into TDM service at the research level and Australia (Firman et al, 2022) and the USA (Pedersen et al, 2016) have initiated programmes where pharmacists can order and interpret laboratory tests for TDM and adjust the drug dose without consulting with doctors, another country has reported a lack of trained pharmacists or clinical pharmacologists to interpret and provide clinical recommendations in TDM (Yin et al, 2023). Previous research exploring TDM practices in various countries has identified several challenges to establishing and advancing TDM services (Antunes et al, 2021;Albassam et al, 2022;Al Mutarid et al, 2022).…”

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