The Complete (but Practical) Guide to Aminoglycosides

Before we get too far, let’s clarify what drugs fall in the aminoglycoside class. That way we’re all on the same page. When we talk about aminoglycosides, we’re referring to gentamicin, tobramycin, and amikacin.

HIV Boot Camp: Integrase Inhibitors

Integrase Inhibitors (also known as IN Strand Transfer Inhibitors...or commonly abbreviated as INSTIs) first appeared on the market in 2007. This may come as a surprise to you, but their job is to inhibit the HIV enzyme Integrase.

What does Integrase do?

Clinical, Pharmacy School, Practice, ResidencyBrandon DysonSeptember 6, 2016HIV medication dosing, HIV drug cheat sheet, HIV cheat sheet, HIV Clinical pearls, hiv therapy cheat sheet, HIV clinical pearls, HIV drugs cheat sheet, HAART cheat sheet, HAART, integrase inhibitors, dolutegravir, Triumeq, elvitegravir, raltegravir

Making Sense of Monoclonal Antibodies

Hello all. I've written another article for Pharmacy Times. We've written about monoclonal antibodies previously (here, and here)..but this is a more "consolidated" and coherent article on the subject.

You can check it out here:

Clinical, Pharmacy School, Practice, ResidencyBrandon DysonAugust 31, 2016pharmacy times, monoclonal antibody guide, monoclonal antibodies made simple, monoclonal antibodies, monoclonal antibody clinical pearls, monoclonal antibody nomenclature, mabs, -mab

HIV Boot Camp: PIs

PIs. Ahhh the ever-so-important private investigators.

Err...I mean protease inhibitors.

You may recall that we've already discussed protease inhibitors in our post on Hepatitis C.

Apixaban use in Hemodialysis?

Howdy all. This is just a quick note to let you know that I wrote a short piece for Pharmacy Times.

You can check it out here:

Clinical, Pharmacy School, Practice, ResidencyBrandon DysonAugust 26, 2016apixaban, hemodialysis, pharmacy times, literature evaluation, HD, dialysis, anticoagulation

Acid - Base Disorders: Essentials for Pharmacists

I have a confession to make...

I didn't "get" acid-base disorders until well after pharmacy school. They were something I was willing to skate through. To take an "L" on the exam if I had to.

HIV Boot Camp: NNRTIs

Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors, or NNRTIs (pronounced like NRTIs, but with a stutter), are the next class of HIV drugs we will be covering.

What makes a NON-nucleoside as opposed to a regular old fashioned nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor?

The Epidemic of 'Professional Shaming'

Hi, I'm Brandon.

I like to joke around when I'm writing about fun topics like Oncology or Antibiotics.

But today I'd like to talk to you about something serious.

I'm talking, of course, about professional shaming.

Pharmacy School, Practice, Professional, ResidencyBrandon DysonAugust 8, 2016professional shaming

The Ultimate Guide to Oncology Pharmacy for the Non-Oncologist

Oncology pharmacy is hard.

Like, really hard.

You get a 3 - 5 week module during school. Maybe you have an APPE rotation. But there's just too much. Too many types of cancers. Too much history that explains how we got to where we are.

Clinical, Pharmacy School, Practice, ResidencyBrandon DysonJuly 31, 2016oncology, oncology pharmacy, cinv, ESA, G-CSF, GM-CSF, chemotherapy, Monoclonal Antibodies, -mab, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, TKI, neutropenic fever, febrile neutropenia, chemotherapy cheat sheet, hypercalcemia of malignancy, tumor lysis syndrome, colony stimulating factors, cytotoxic, chemo, cancer, oncology clinical pearls, chemotherapy clinical pearls, chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting, cinv clinical pearls, cancer clinical pearls, erythropoietin stimulating agents, ESA APPRISE, platelet stimulating agents, infusion reaction, Anticoagulation, anticoagulation in cancer patients, tyrosine kinase inhibitor clinical pearls, monoclonal antibody clinical pearls, carboplatin, carboplatin dosing, the calvert formula, dose limiting toxicity, oncology cheat sheet, targeted therapy cheat sheet, chemo cheat sheet

Psych Pharmacy: Depression Treatment and Overview

Editor's Note: It is with great pleasure that I introduce Nina Vadiei, PharmD. Nina is a totally bad ass PGY2 Psych Pharmacy Resident who has written the excellent post you're about to read. She's sort of like a wizard when it comes to all things 'psych,' and we really appreciate her dropping knowledge bombs here for you all.

Pro Tip: There is a whole bunch of awesome dosing charts at the end of this post.

Hypertension: A tl;dr pharmacy overview

Hypertension has been called the “silent killer.” It’s basically asymptomatic unless your blood pressure is high enough to classify as a "hypertensive urgency/emergency." Only then do you really notice anything. You'll get headaches, dizziness, blurry vision, shortness of breath...that sort of thing.

Otherwise, a hypertensive patient feels normal. But behind the scenes, bad stuff is going down in the body.

HIV Boot Camp: NRTIs

Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors make up what's called the "backbone" of every traditional HAART regimen. It is also an awfully long phrase to type, so I will refer to them only as "NRTIs" from here on out.

But before I go on, there's another distinction I have to make. There are actually both nucleoside and nucelotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors. We lump them into the same "NRTI" bucket because they work in exactly the same way. But they are technically different from each other.