Interactive visualization and communication for increased impact of pharmacometrics.

The art of pharmacometric activities (also called modeling and simulation) is in developing the appropriate model to describe the data at hand. In a subsequent step, outputs from the model are frequently used for quantitative decision making: what is the appropriate dose and dosing regimen, should the dose be individualized, what percentage of patients can be expected to reach therapeutic levels of exposure, and more. However, a good model does not automatically lead to a good decision-making process, which implies clinical team decisions on the population to be treated, the clinical end point, the dose, and the dosing regimen. The authors argue that seeing is believing: interactive visualization helps the communication process of clinical teams substantially. A flow of arguments guided by visualization of the model-predicted consequences of choosing a particular setup makes the discussion transparent and enhances quantitative decision making. The use of interactive visualization tools (such as the Berkeley Madonna software system) for pharmacometric results facilitates effective communication, enhanced quantitative decision making, and thus increases the impact of pharmacometrics in drug development.