Drug Database Provides Valuable Information and Advise on Pediatric Treatments: Presented at ACCP


By Linda J. Little

PHOENIX, AZ -- October 6, 2004 -- Researchers have created a pediatric database that provides advice and information on how to optimally administer new and existing drugs to children.

Information on the new database was presented here October 4^th at the American Academy of Clinical Pharmacology 33^rd Annual Meeting.

The database contains information on the pharmokinetics and pharmacodynamics of 500 drugs used to treat adults and children and continues to grow, said Dimple Patel, a graduate student in the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics Division, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

"Less than 20% of drugs listed in the Physicians Desk Reference contain dosing guidance for pediatric indications," said Ms. Patel. "This database will not only help researchers, but also physicians in determining dosing, side effects and clinical outcomes of drug treatment in children."

Compendiums which contain practical dosing for various pediatric subpopulations abstracted from the scientific literature contain highly summarized data which is non standardized and text-based, she said. "In some cases, this is not reflective of the most current or relevant information available."

"Our intention is to create a dynamic access to existing data for medicines commonly prescribed to neonates, infants and children," she said.

The database includes drug formulations, dosing guidance, clinical outcomes and references. Also included is information on drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination. The dosing guidelines contains current recommendations from published compendiums and data descriptors capturing dosing guidance in pediatrics.

Past therapeutic failures have shown that pediatric populations elicit distinct adverse drug reaction profiles, Ms. Patel said. Dosing derived from adult studies cannot easily be extrapolated to infants and children, she said.

The new pediatric knowledge base with decision support capabilities will be a valuable tool for guiding pediatric pharmacotherapy, she said. "Any physician can use this database and it will greatly aid in pediatric research projects in dosing, side effects and clinical outcomes," she said.


[Presentation title: "Database Design and Creation of a Pediatric Knowledgebase for Dosing Guidance and Research Decision Support." Poster 62]