Anirudh Thommandram, Medical R&D Scientist at Klick Health (left, on screen) and Dr. Thomas Oommen, Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist at Lakeridge Health (right) demonstrate VancoCalc, a new advanced medication dosage calculator to help pharmacists and physicians determine the correct amount of vancomycin for treating life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant, bacterial infections.

On August 4, 2021, Klick Health and Lakeridge Health introduced a technologically advanced medication dosage calculator to help pharmacists and physicians determine the correct amount of vancomycin for treating life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant, bacterial infections. The tool, VancoCalc, which has been in use at Lakeridge Health since December 2020, is available for free at www.VancoCalc.com.

Klick's Applied Sciences team developed VancoCalc in collaboration with Lakeridge Health's Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist Dr. Thomas Oommen using advanced Bayesian mathematical modeling (allowing for tight control of vancomycin dosage) and pharmacokinetics, which considers factors like metabolism, while adhering to Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidance. Fast Company has ranked Klick Health #9 on its third annual list of the 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators.

"VancoCalc is an innovative and important development for hospitals, which often prescribe vancomycin as a last resort for treating bacterial infections," said Dr. Oommen. "Determining proper dosage can be extremely complicated and VancoCalc can aid the clinician in determining an effective and appropriate dose."

"We are proud to collaborate with Lakeridge Health on this important healthcare innovation," said Klick Medical R&D Scientist and project lead Anirudh Thommandram. "It is our hope that others will benefit from our collective mathematical, engineering, and clinical expertise. We've open-sourced this tool to help more hospitals calculate vancomycin dosage with greater ease and accuracy and ensure the utmost in patient care."

VancoCalc marks another step in improving personalized medicine. Bayesian dosing tools can closely estimate a patient's individual pharmacokinetic parameters more efficiently and optimize vancomycin dosing. Previously, dose adjustments for vancomycin were made with heuristics and manual pharmacokinetic calculations. Bayesian dosing tools can be cost-prohibitive for many hospitals. VancoCalc is one of the few free Bayesian calculators available.

Since being used at Lakeridge Health, VancoCalc has also been the subject of a research project, which will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Klick Co-Founder and Chairman Leerom Segal said, "We consider ourselves very fortunate to work with the world's leading healthcare authorities on solving critical health problems. Innovation, at its core, is all about solving problems and by embracing a culture of experimentation, we enable Klicksters to connect new dots, enable new possibilities, and ultimately improve people's lives."

Among other innovative Klick collaborations:

• In April 2020, Klick Labs worked with the Chief of Anesthesia at Humber River Hospital to adapt an intubation box design for North American standards, and then manufactured and donated nearly 1,500 of the boxes to hospitals in need across North America
• Klick's Scientific Visualization team created a first-of-its-kind, open-source, 3D COVID-19 model to visually represent the virus with as much detail as possible.
• In 2016, the company teamed up with Boston Children's Hospital to co-found Circulation, the pioneer in on-demand non-emergency healthcare transportation.