October 3, 2019
Left to right, Keith Rodvold, Ryan Crass, Amit Pai
From left to right: Keith Rodvold, Ryan Crass, and Amit Pai

Renal Dosing of Antibiotics: Are We Jumping the Gun? was named Pharmacotherapy Paper of the Year 2019 by the Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists (SIDP). U-M faculty members Amit Pai and Bruce Mueller, former U-M Clinical Pharmacy Translational Science Fellow Ryan Crass, and Keith Rodvold with UIC wrote the paper.

The award was presented during the SIDP annual meeting in Washington, DC on October 1.

“Antibiotic doses are often lowered in patients with chronic kidney disease, but this recommendation may be more harmful than good to patients hospitalized with infections,” explains Amit Pai, PharmD, associate professor of clinical pharmacy. “The FDA issued warnings for worse outcomes with use of certain antibiotics in patients with poor kidney function. We used the University of Michigan clinical database to show that about 1 out of every 5 patients admitted with common infections  are flagged as having bad kidney function but this improves within 48 hours in more than half the cases. We suggest that antibiotic dose reduction should be delayed for 48 hours so that patients don’t unnecessarily get a lower dose than they actually need.”

“When using antibiotics that are relatively safe, it is more prudent to not lower the dose until we are uncertain that patients truly have bad kidney function.”
 

SIDP is an association of pharmacists and allied healthcare professionals dedicated to promoting the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents. It is committed to promoting the appropriate use of antimicrobial agents and supporting practice, teaching and research in Infectious Diseases. This society has close to 1500 members who are working to improve antimicrobial stewardship and the burden and poor outcomes associated with multidrug resistant infections.

“It is an honor to get this award from this prestigious organization that is at the forefront of guiding clinical practice in infectious diseases pharmacotherapy,” notes Dr. Pai.

Dr. Pai also serves the College as Deputy Director of the Pharmacokinetics Core Laboratory. His research focus is optimal drug dose selection in special populations such as obesity. He earned his PharmD from the University of Texas at Austin and Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Texas. He completed a pharmacy practice residency at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, New York, and an infectious diseases/pharmacokinetics fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has held tenured faculty positions at University of New Mexico and Albany College of Pharmacy. Dr. Pai has over 100 publications and has received multiple awards for his work.