Clinician’s Brief spotlights practical pharmacokinetics for vets

Clinician’s Brief has published a new peer-reviewed practical guide, “Pharmacokinetics 101 for Veterinarians,” by Jennifer L. Davis, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, DACVCP, of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and followed it with an April 20, 2026 podcast episode featuring Davis and host Alyssa Watson, DVM. The article is positioned as a back-to-basics resource for clinicians who may feel rusty on core pharmacokinetic concepts such as absorption, distribution, metabolism, elimination, Cmax, AUC, clearance, volume of distribution, and half-life. Davis argues that understanding those concepts can help veterinarians evaluate dosing studies more critically and make safer, more effective drug choices in dogs and cats. (cliniciansbrief.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this isn’t just a refresher course. Davis emphasizes that pharmacokinetic data are often generated in healthy animals, while real-world patients bring species differences, age, breed, concurrent disease, and drug interactions that can materially change drug exposure and risk. Her guide highlights practical pitfalls, including the fact that half-life is useful for estimating accumulation and time to steady state, but shouldn’t be used by itself to set dosing intervals, and that extravascular estimates like Cl/F or Vd/F can overstate true values. That kind of nuance matters when practices are interpreting literature, adjusting therapy, or explaining medication expectations to pet parents. (cliniciansbrief.com)

What to watch: Expect this topic to keep surfacing in continuing education and clinical content as veterinarians lean harder on individualized dosing, therapeutic drug monitoring, and more critical reading of PK data. (music.amazon.com)