Dissertation • Maria Swartling
- Date: 24 January 2025, 09:15–12:00
- Location: Uppsala Biomedical Centre, room A1:111a
- Type: Thesis defence
- Lecturer: Maria Swartling, PhD Student
- Thesis author: undefined
- DiVA
- Organiser: Department of Pharmacy
- Contact person: Maria Swartling
- Research topic: Antibiotic resistance
Maria Swartling, PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy, defends her thesis: Model-informed antibiotic dose individualisation in clinical practice, a work in which she introduces new findings that enable safer and more effective use of antibiotics and a strategy for clinical implementation.
Antimicrobial resistance is defined by the World Health Organization as one of the biggest threats to global public health. The fact that 40 years have passed since a new class of antibiotics reached healthcare – where access to effective drugs to treat infections is essential – makes the need for alternative methods urgent, and in her thesis, Maria Swartling, PhD student at the Faculty of Pharmacy, presents important findings that pave the way for better use of available antibiotics.
In her research, Maria Swartling has evaluated extended infusion times of three antibiotics that are frequently used in intensive care. Her results show that 15 minutes of administration into the blood normally provide sufficient concentrations against simple infections, and above all: three hours or continuous infusion can generate sufficient levels to eliminate even more difficult-to-treat bacteria.
This indicates that extended dosing enables more patients – but not all – to reach the target concentration. With digital software that provide support to interpret the concentration of drugs in a body, so-called Model-Informed Precision Dosing, MIPD, healthcare can identify patients at risk of under-treatment and adjust the dose already at an early stage, and at the Uppsala University Hospital, a strategy for effective clinical implementation of MIPD is currently tried out.
The pilot project is focused on introducing MIPD for vancomycin with a working model that involves the entire healthcare team from the start. If the approach that is up for evaluation in 2026 proves successful, ambitions are to make the model applicable to several other drugs and treatment areas.
Supervisors
Elisabet Nielsen, Thomas Tängdén (Uppsala University) and Siv Jönsson (Pharmetheus).
Opponent
Alison Thomson (University of Strathclyde).
Researcher Bio
Maria Swartling obtained her Degree of Master of Science in Pharmacy at Uppsala University before being recruited as a teacher to the Master's Programme in Clinical Pharmacy. Maria worked as a clinical pharmacist at the Uppsala University Hospital 2012-2016 and started her doctoral project at the Department of Pharmacy in January 2019.