therapeutic drug monitoring: 5 TDM predictions that will surprise you

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM) is a procedure used to help determine the concentration of drugs in a person's bloodstream. TDM helps doctors monitor patients who are taking therapeutic drugs, to ensure drug efficacy and to avoid drug toxicity. More broadly, TDM describes a branch of clinical chemistry that works in collaboration with other fields, including pharmacokinetics as well as pharmacogenomics.

The discipline of TDM is expected to report some significant developments in the coming years, particularly in organ transplant medicine. Organ transplant patients must be monitored routinely for creatinine levels and tacrolimus levels in their blood. 

The following are some of the projections and important transformations expected of TDM in the near future.

1. Advancements in Epilepsy Therapeutics. Technological growth has led to a high growth rate in the treatment of neurological disorders. One such disorder is epilepsy, which involves repeated seizures of different classifications. The dominant market in epilepsy therapeutics is North America. This market is being driven by better healthcare equipment as well as increased knowledge on the disorder. In the next five years, India, Europe, and China are expected to experience high growth in epilepsy therapeutics.
   
   
2. Innovation in therapeutic drug monitoring will be driven forward by a confluence of factors, including increased participation of private and government sectors in the TDM market, increase in drug profiling, and the improved healthcare system.
   
   
3. Ongoing issues, including retrenchment in hospital and reimbursement of funds, are expected to affect the TDM market. Allocation of resources and fluctuations in the global market are also expected to affect the field.
   
   
4. Expansion will occur in the TDM field, as appreciation and understanding of the importance of TDM increases.
   
   
5. Microsampling technologies will continue to revolutionize the TDM field and gain wider adoption. Since TDM requires drawing of blood at regular and frequent intervals, a benefit of microsampling is that it can enable remote blood collection and remote monitoring of patients. Blood microsamples can be used to generate useful results using very small amounts of blood. 
   
   For these reasons, microsampling is expected to be the blood collection technique that drives TDM innovation forward. New results and methods indicate this shift is already in progress. Toxicology and clinical labs are already processing microsampling for TDM studies and programs.

The therapeutic drug monitoring market is expected to grow quite a bit as it plays an important role in treatment and improvement of overall quality of life.

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