Prescribing Medication
The penicillin model is not to be used for medical, clinical,
research, scientific, research, legal, or regulatory purposes. It is
intended SOLELY for educational purposes.
Prescribing the correct dose of medication to patients can be tricky. You may have noticed on the back of some bottles of medication that there is a different dose recommended for children and for adults. This is because children are usually smaller and weigh less than adults. Children have what is called a smaller Volume of Distribution - or less volume in which the medicine can distribute itself.
You can use this computer model to test different dosing schedules for different sized patients.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Begin by entering your own weight and choosing the Dose per tablet, Number of days, and frequency. The current therapeutic dose that you are aiming to achieve is .5 units/ml. You can change this value in the box below.
When you click the RUN button at the bottom of the page you will see a graph of your results. The blue line represents the correct dose that will cure the patient. The red line represents the dose of medication the patient is receiving. If the red line is far above the blue line, you may kill your patient. If the red line is far below the blue line, the medication is not helping the patient. This condition is known as sub-therapeutic. Your goal is to bring the red line as close to the blue line as possible. Also, make sure that your recommended dose is realistic. For example, no patient will be willing to take a medication every hour for 10 days. Good luck!
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