title: Comparison of open-access vancomycin dosing websites.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There are many methods for dosing vancomycin. The purpose of this commentary was to compare open-access vancomycin dosing websites with Vancomycin-Calculator.com and describe how body weight can affect their pharmacokinetic (PK) calculations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A vancomycin dosing website, Vancomycin-Calculator.com, was developed to improve the dosing practice at our health system. Nine other vancomycin dosing calculators were identified, including three open-access websites. Each website uses a different dosing method. Most of the websites calculated similar doses for patients with normal body weight. Vancomycin-Calculator.com was the only website to calculate practical doses for obese patients, and it calculated higher daily doses for underweight patients compared to other websites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vancomycin-Calculator.com is an open-access vancomycin dosing website that was developed using the Bauer PK method. Compared with three other websites, PK calculations resulted in significant differences for underweight and obese patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs, Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Temple, TX, USA.
authors.forename: N P
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Fewel
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019540:Area Under Curve; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D014640:Vancomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014640:Vancomycin
keywords: Calculator; Dosing; Pharmacokinetics; Vancomycin; Website