Therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacogenomics are both pharmacy-related areas within the clinical laboratory. Although each is considered a sub-discipline within laboratory medicine, the two fields overlap significantly. In this course, we will provide an overview of each of these laboratory sub-disciplines and discuss the utility, rationale, and practice of each one.

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a branch of clinical chemistry that specializes in the measurement of medication levels in serum. TDM requires that the laboratory make quantitative measurements of drugs and/or their metabolites.

Pharmacogenomics (usually abbreviated PGx) is the study of how variations in the human genome affect a given individual’s response to medications. It refers to how administered drugs will be handled by a specific person given specific genetic mutations and polymorphisms they may have.

Intended Audience: The target audience for this course is laboratory professionals (Medical Laboratory Scientists, Medical Technologists and Technicians, et.al.) who are responsible for prescribing and administering therapeutic medications.

Learning Objectives

• Define therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and explain the rationale for this testing.
• Explain the concept of elimination half-life.
• List the criteria and attributes of commonly monitored drugs.
• Discuss three methods that are used for the measurement of therapeutic drugs in serum.
• Define pharmacogenomics, polymorphism and CYP450; explain what is meant by ‘individualized medicine’ or ‘personalized medicine’.
• Explain the usefulness of CYP450 testing as well as its shortcomings.
• List the four classifications of metabolizers and explain the clinical relevance of each.

This course has been approved for P.A.C.E.® credit. There are no prerequisites for this course.