Eight Drugs a Week Podcast Jana Stojanova & Florian Lemaitre

This time, it’s the right time - not a second time, but a unique time - to take the road to Banff, Canada, for the 22nd edition of the IATDMCT annual congress. 
This time, following a very successful virtual edition in 2020, we are very glad to be meeting in person. And what a place to meet! - surrounded by Banff’s mountainous splendour. We are so grateful the congress organizing committee accepted the mission to make the show happen again, and we acknowledge the incredible work they’ve put behind two wonderful congresses. 
We hope attendees will be inspired by the location, and we are certain it will be a very special IATDMCT meeting this year.
Joining us for the episode are organising committee heroes, congress chairs David Kinniburgh and Penny Colbourne, and Pamela Lyons, who apart from being an event organising extraordinaire, is also IATDMCT member manager, and runs our head office!
 
In this episode we’ll hear ab-oo-t (pun intended!):
•      How the congress theme ties in with Banff's history of exploration and beautiful mountain scenery.
•      How the scientific program balances traditional topics with new frontiers in TDM and CT: wastewater testing for drug use, pioneering genetic testing and AI applications, developments in keeping abreast of novel psychoactive substances.
•      The pre-congress workshop on emerging topics in clinical toxicology, including novel drug checking services and lessons learned following marijuana legalization.
•      The social program that ensures guests will be fully immersed in the Canadian Rockies experience, including hiking opportunities, a western-themed dinner, and wildlife spotting
•      Why inspiration, creative insight and joyful collaboration are essentially guaranteed at this meeting!
 
About our guests:
Dave is the Director of the Alberta Centre for Toxicology, an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine of the University of Calgary, and a Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta, located in Edmonton, Alberta. 
Penny is a Clinical Toxicologist at the University of Alberta Hospital and Clinical Professor at the University of Alberta.
Pam started at IATDMCT in 1995, with our Congress in Vienna. She’s attended every Congress since! She takes care of our members and provides support to our senior leadership teams. Pam and the IATDMCT team are based at our head office in Kingston, Ontario.
 

There was a time when we performed laborious pharmacokinetic hand calculations to tailor drug dosages and regimens – a practice that can still be useful for those brave enough to perform logarithmic calculator manipulations. These days, we are fortunate to have an increasing number of software tools to help us with the task, however many rely on population pharmacokinetic models typically built with relatively small data sets, and often necessarily representing subpopulations with niche requirements. Tomorrow, our work will no doubt be helped by artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches, and we have already started to see such approaches applied in the research arena.
 
Today, we are lucky to be joined by two experts from the field of pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modelling, Prof Michael Neely and Prof Jean-Baptiste Woillard.
 
In this episode we’ll hear about: 
•      the differences between traditional population pharmacokinetics and machine learning approaches in predicting drug exposure and optimizing dosing regimens
•      some advantages of ML approaches, including in handling nonlinear patterns
•      the challenge of interpretability of results and dose recommendations from machine learning methods compared to traditional pharmacokinetic methods
•      which clinical contexts we will soon see machine learning derived models applied to clinical care
•      the future of modelling and machine learning in pharmacology, including ethical considerations and the concept of augmented intelligence
 
Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the position of the Association. 
 
To join IATDMCT, visit: https://iatdmct.org/join-us/
 
Subscribe to Eight Drugs a Week on your preferred podcast platform. 
 
About our guests: 
Jean-Baptiste is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacovigilance in the Limoges University Hospital, France where he leads the Pharmacometrics and Artificial Intelligence hospital functional unit. He is also Deputy Director of the Inserm Unit 1248 at the University of Limoges, France.
 
Michael Neely is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Laboratory of Applied Pharmacokinetics and Bioinformatics, both at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
 

This episode we're excited to introduce you to the young guns, the bright minds of the Young Scientist Committee of the IATDMCT, who are making waves in this ever-evolving field.
 
Our guests are Lea Wagmann, Hualin Cai, and Sumith Mathew, each bringing their unique perspectives and experiences from Germany, China, and India, respectively. From their early inspirations to their current endeavours, we'll uncover what drives them and the impact they're making on the future of pharmacology and toxicology. We’ll delve into their expectations for the years ahead, exploring the forefront of the scene and the innovative ideas brewing within the young scientist community.
 
In this episode we’ll hear about:
•      Very interesting science each one is working on including quantification to support evaluation of compliance, a suite of modelling tools being applied in the resource limited setting, and the impact of the microbiome on psychopharmacology
•      First congress experiences: meeting professional heroes and memorable moments
•      How membership has enabled mentoring opportunities with some of the greats in the field
•      Facing challenges such as lack of evidence for many drugs and wider need for education and training - and what YS are doing to address these
•      YS involvement in initiatives such as the recently launched Regional Asian Pacific Section of the Association, and opportunities for support and mentorship in the region
 
Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the position of the Association. 
 
To join IATDMCT, visit https://www.iatdmct.org/member-join 
 
Subscribe to Eight Drugs a Week on your preferred podcast platform. 
 
About our guests: 
Lea Wagmann is a Clinical Toxicologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Experimental and Clinical Toxicology of the Saarland University in Homburg, Germany.
Hualin Cai is an Associate Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and Clinical Toxicology, the Department of Pharmacy and Institute of Clinical Pharmacy, the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, China
Sumith Mathew is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India.

This episode is about a fairly recent development in TDM and clinical toxicology that has huge potential, which has actually been used for many decades. It was recently the 50th anniversary of the Guthrie method, where dried blood spots are used to screen inborn errors of metabolism in neonatal infants. Thanks to instrumental developments, dried blood spots, and more generally microsampling approaches, have been increasingly applied to quantify a wide range of drug entities. Although these approaches offer plenty of novel opportunities in our field, they are not without challenges and pitfalls.
 
Our guests today are two of the biggest names in microsampling – and also absolute IATDMCT VIPs and legends. We are joined by our current president, Jan-Willem Alffenaar, and president-elect, Christophe Stove, for deep dive on the topic.
 
In this episode we hear about:
•      Which Beatle might be the most interesting test subject for microsampling evaluation
•      How low can you go? When does it become a macrosample?
•      Diverse microsampling approaches: dry, wet, different matrices
•      Go robust – or go home
•      Obvious, and not-so-obvious challenges; typical and very novel solutions
•      Clinical, toxicological and research applications: what the innovators are doing, and potential for even greater global impact
•      How many times would you prick your finger in a day? The sweet spot in being informative, but not terrible for patients
•      From the Beatles to ABBA: money, money, money and the place of microsapmpling in health systems
 
Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the position of the Association. 
 
To join IATDMCT, visit https://www.iatdmct.org/member-join 
 
Subscribe to Eight Drugs a Week on your preferred podcast platform. 
 
 
About our guests: 
Jan-Willem is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at The University of Sydney, and Chair of Clinical Pharmacy at Westmead Hospital, in Sydney Australia.
 
Christophe Stove is Professor, and director of the toxicology laboratory, at the Department of Bioanalysis, at Gent University in Belgium.

The recent congress in Oslo was a huge success. We were very glad to catch up with colleagues and hear about some really excellent science. We also bumped into Steve Wong and Phil Walson, first and third presidents of the IATDMCT, and we were delighted they obliged us with an interview about the origins of the Association.
 
Like with any good origin story, Steve and Phil are true superheroes. Both have held numerous leadership positions in their professions and in professional associations, achieved international cooperation agreements, and advocated nationally and internationally for the quality use of medicines.
 
We were so wrapped in this interview, that we totally forgot to ask Steve and Phil what their favourite Beatles are - we’ll just have to have them (Get) back!
 
In this episode we hear about:
the history and development of the Association, its early years and key figures that contributed to its success the first meetings in Osaka and Chicago, that were followed by the inaugural IATDMCT event in Barcelona the organization's international representation and camaraderie among members the dedication to being international from the start and an emphasis on supporting young scientists the origins and developments of the TDM Journal  
Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the position of the Association.  
  
To join IATDMCT, visit https://www.iatdmct.org/member-join  
  
Subscribe to Eight Drugs a Week on your preferred podcast platform.  
  
About our guests:  
Steve is professor of pathology, director of the clinical chemistry and toxicology laboratory, and co-director of the Clinical and Translational Mass Spectrometry Center at the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
 
Phil is a Paediatrician, Clinical Pharmacologist, and Medical Toxicologist, was Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Division of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital and is a visiting Professor at the Georg-August-Universitat Medical School, Goettingen, Germany.

In this bonus episode, we delve into the upcoming IATDMCT congress that will take place September 24th to 27th in Oslo, Norway . It promises to be an exciting event with varied and highly novel sessions. Joining us today are esteemed IATDMCT scientists and local members of the congress organizing committee: Stein Bergan, Ida Robertson, and Anders Åsberg.
We delve into their motivations to host the congress and discuss the inspiration behind the theme: 'Personalized under the Northern Sky.' Our guests elaborate on how they will weave this overarching theme through the whole event. We explore some captivating sessions featured on the program, including therapeutic use of orellanine mushroom toxin, TDM of statins, acyclovir & ganciclovir, tacrolimus, microsampling approaches and hands-on sessions. Additionally, we cover the educational initiatives designed specifically for Young Scientists.
Prepare for an enriching experience filled not only with valuable scientific knowledge but also a great deal of fun. If that's not enough, get ready for some thrilling activities like running and the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. Register for the congress today! 
 
In this episode we hear about:
●    IATDMCT Oslo 2023: introducing our committee members
●    The motivation behind the congress theme: Personalized Under the Northern Sky
●    What’s in it for me? Why attend the Oslo congress.
●    Double the usual number of plenaries, including one about the therapeutic use of orellanine mushroom toxin
●    Hands-on pre-congress event: deep-dive into microsampling approaches to enhance clinical applications and research efforts 
●    Educational initiatives for Young Scientists
●    Satisfying all your needs: networking opportunities, the social program and unique activities only Oslo can offer   
 
Eight Drugs a Week is supported by the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology (IATDMCT). The personal views of the hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the position of the Association. 
 
To join IATDMCT, visit https://www.iatdmct.org/member-join 
 
Subscribe to Eight Drugs a Week on your preferred podcast platform. 
 

About our guests: 
Stein Bergan
Congress Chair. Group leader at the precision pharmacotherapy research group of Oslo University Hospital, Dept of Pharmacology. He is also a professor of the department of Pharmacy at University of Oslo
Ida Robertson
Associate Professor at the department of Pharmacy at University of Oslo and a member of the Pharmacokinetics Research Group. 
Anders Åsberg
Head of the laboratory for renal physiology at Oslo University Hospital and adjunct Professor of the department of Pharmacy at University of Oslo.