This month’s interview comes from Barcelona, Spain. I had the pleasure to meet Olga Millán at last year’s congress, where she was among the early risers for the morning jog (not me, I was an admirer of the photos). Exhibiting similar speed, Olga has been the fastest responder to our interviews (less than 24h), greatly appreciated in a time of end of year commitments and pre-festivities. Olga shares about her long-term experience with a clinical lab and research group dedicated to discovery and implementation of biomarkers for tailoring immunosuppressant treatment.

Olga Millán
Researcher, Networked Biomedical Research Center (CIBERehd)
Pharmacology and Toxicology Laboratory (CDB)
Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, SP

This month I contacted Marieke Sturkenboom, Vice-Chair of the Pharmacometrics Committee, whom I didn’t realise works with Daan Touw, our first interviewee. It was wonderful to hear from Marieke’s perspective as a young scientist being welcomed into this world class laboratory and clinical service. It is also interesting to hear about how Marieke and her colleagues have been involved in the challenges that many modern hospitals go through, such as implementation of electronic patient records, upgrading to international laboratory standards and upgrading dose adaptation software.

Marieke Sturkenboom
Hospital Pharmacist and Clinical Pharmacologist
University Medical Centre, Groningen, NL

Many thanks to the Compass Editorial Team:

Paula Schaiquevich
Edgar Spencer
Franck Saint-Marcoux.

As we have come to expect, the Compass this month was full of great reports. In this issue we hear about scientific meetings in several very diverse locations, while the Anti-Infective Committee report on emerging developments in the Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of antiretrovirals and echonocandin class of antifungals.

Finally, there is a forum piece about the future of Precision Medicine (that sent me thinking down a rabbit hole into the past) and a report about the upcoming book, Individualized Drug Therapy, from two of our members, leaders in their field. Precision medicine, individualized therapy: is it precise to say they are the same?

This month we hear from Dr. Maria Shipkova, with whom I have had the pleasure of collaborating in the Communications Committee since the 2011 IATDMCT Congress in Stuttgart, where Maria and her colleagues were very gracious hosts. During this collaboration I have seen how hard Maria has worked to contribute to IATDMCT member services, from her previous work as Compass Editor to her current role as Director of Education, as well as participating in the Immunosuppressive Drugs scientific committee.  It’s a pleasure to hear from Maria, and find out about her work life and current projects, especially since her story exemplifies a successful and transversal clinical TDM and toxicology service.

Maria Shipkova
Central Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
Klinikum Stuttgart
Stuttgart, Germany