Background: A fast-growing part of the worldwide population consists of older adults. This population ageing has a profound impact on our healthcare system, making older adults responsible for almost half of all healthcare costs. Bacterial infections are common in older adults, resulting in longer hospital stays and increased morbidity and mortality.

Knowledge regarding the effect of ageing on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) of antibiotics remains scarce. Consequently, older adults are currently treated using a one-dose-fits-all approach. This often results in sub- or supratherapeutic treatment, which is directly linked to therapeutic failure, toxicity and development of antimicrobial resistance.

Objectives: The overall objective of this research project is  to develop and validate optimized dosing regimens for commonly used antibiotics in geriatric patients for which no or only sparse PK data is available.

Methods: The proposed research includes the use of state-of-the art population PK/PD modelling