Mapping the clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetic units operating in Spanish hospitals

The goal of this article is to analyze the situation of  harmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics units in the pharmacy departments of  Spanish hospitals, evaluate their development both in the clinical and educational areas, and draw up a map reflecting their current status.  Method: A 29-item survey structured in five blocks was designed with general questions about the respondents' hospital and the clinical and educational activities carried out by their pharmacy department, in the fields of both pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics.

Sixty-nine  hospitals answered the survey. The highest response rates corresponded to  Catalonia, the Valencia region and Andalusia. The drug families subject to closest monitoring were classic antibiotics (93%), digoxin (57%), classic antiepileptics  (51%) and biologicals (43%). The most frequently used computer programs  included PKS and NONMEM (93% and 22% of hospitals, respectively).  Regarding training in pharmacokinetics, second year residents were those who  most frequently rotated through the pharmacokinetics unit (40%), while 44%  of those units allowed external residents. As far as pharmacogenetics is  concerned, in 42% of hospitals that engaged in pharmacogenetic work, the  department in charge was pharmacy. The most frequent specialties covered  were hemato-oncology (72%) and psychiatry (15%). Twenty-four percent of  hospitals offered rotations through their pharmacogenetics unit but only seven of them allowed external residents.

The results of the survey showed an increase in the  erformance of pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic activities by Spanish hospital pharmacies as compared with the data from a 2009 baseline  survey, with many hospitals introducing the performance of therapeutic drug monitoring of non-classical antibiotics, immunosuppressants and biologics. However, the percentage of hospitals that follow the ideal model based on analytical determinations and pharmacokinetic reporting has decreased the data obtained served as a basis to create an updated map of the  harmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics units operating in Spanish hospital  pharmacy departments. This map, available at http://bit.ly/mapaPKGen, will be very useful to facilitate the training of residents in these disciplines and will  help promote the development of pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic activities among hospital pharmacists.