Importance of Collaborations Between Transplant Pharmacists and Infectious Disease Pharmacists

Monica Mahoney, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, clinical pharmacy coordinator of infectious diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, explains the importance of collaboration between transplant pharmacists and infectious disease (ID) pharmacists in order to provide patients with optimal treatment.

Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability).

“The transplant pharmacists are the experts in nuances of transplants and the medications and what the patient is going through, but ID pharmacists, they are the experts in antibiotics, and they can help differentiate the choice between second, third, [and] fourth-line therapy because a lot of times we’re not reaching for that first-line drug that everybody’s familiar with.

These are resistant organisms [and] these are complicated patients that might have drug interactions or disease interactions. The collaboration [between] transplant pharmacy and ID pharmacy can help [us] select the best individualized treatment for [a] transplant patient.”