Prof. dr. B.C.P. (Birgit) Koch

Dr Birgit CP Koch is a Hospital Pharmacist-Clinical Pharmacologist and full Professor at Erasmus MC, group of Clinical Pharmacometrics. She focusses on Pharmacometrics, PK/PD Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Toxicology (and till 2015 quality control in Apotheek A15) and is also part of the management team of the pharmacy.

She supervises the education program for residents in Clinical Pharmacology. Amongst all, she has been president of VENA (female academic network Rotterdam) and she was member of the board of the Dutch Knowledge Center on Pregnancy-related Psychiatry and the registration committees for hospital pharmacists and clinical pharmacologists.

Now, she is member of the VIDI committee, the EC of EPASG, the PK/PD group of ESCMID, ISAP, ASCPT, the SWAB committee and the alternative sampling and infections committee of IATDMCT. She authored more than 220 publications on PK/PD, TDM and toxicology and she is the PI of several studies on model-based dosing, TDM and PK in antibiotics and antipsychotics (>1.500k and co-investigator of > 4.000k). 

In addition, she is chair of the knowledge safety committee in Erasmus MC, chair of the Young Investigator Grant committee and member of the medical ethical board of Erasmus MC, and steering committee member of NWA.

Her research focuses on alternative matrices, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs in special populations and toxicology during pregnancy. She has been a medical ethical board member for more than seven years and she supervises 18 PhD theses (of which six are finished). She is a member of two FWO boards and principal investigator of the academic center of excellence in Erasmus MC (ACE) Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

From January 2020 she is head of Research & Teaching of Pharmacy Erasmus MC.

• Therapeutic Drug Monitoring;
• Pharmaokinetic and Pharmacodynamic modeling;
• Toxicology - Forensic Toxicology;
• Clinical Pharmacology.

She studied pharmacy at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. In 2003 she became a Pharmacist. In the same year, she started her residency in Hospital Pharmacy in Meander MC in Amersfoort, which was combined with PhD research after receiving a research grant from the Dutch Kidney Foundation. Her thesis, End-stage renal Disease: Sleep disturbances and the Biological Clock, was succesfully defended at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in september 2009. One of the articles (the EMSCAP study) received a Prize for being the best paper by authors in training from the British Pharmacology Society.  During her last year of her thesis she started an internship in Clinical Pharmacology at VUmc in Amsterdam. 

A complete overview of publications can be found on PubMed.

• Visiting professor University of Yogyakarta;
• Dr. Marije Russcher: Circadian rhythm disturbances in end-stage renal disease (02-06-2015);
• Dr. Nauras Shuker: Strategies to optimize tacrolimus treatment and improve long-term clinical outcomes of solid organ transplantation (29-06-2016);
• Dr Linda Franken: PK/PD of midazolam, morphine and haloperidol in palliative patients (07-02-2018);
• Dr. Femke de Velde: Dosing Optimization of Beta-Lactam Antibiotics using Parametric and Nonparametric Population Pharmacokinetic Models. (14-10-2020)
• Dr. Rixt Wijma: Pharmacokinetic profiling of fosfomycin and nitrofurantoin to optimize the treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infections. (10-12-2019)
• Dr. Sanne Kloosterboer: What's in a Drop of Blood? Towards individualized treatment with antipsychotic drugs in children and adolescents. (20-01-2021)
• Ongoing thesis supervision:
  - Alan Abdulla, to TDM or not to TDM of beta-lactams, start 01-01-2018;
  - Tim Ewoldt: to TDM or not to TDM of beta-lactams, start 01-04-2019;
  - Laura Peeters, adherence of anti-hypertensives, start 01-01-2018.

• Medical Coordinator Pharmacy;
• Member of the Management team at the department of Pharmacy;
• Board member LKPZ/SWAB/VENA.

Principal investigator

• 2nd budget source 1 ZonMw GGG: Safety and Pharmacokinetics of antipsychotics in Children with Autism 2015, 315.000)
• Dose IndividualizAtion of Beta lactam and fluoroquinolone AntiBiotics in ICU patients: to TDM or not to
  TDM and the effects on Outcome (DIABOLO-study) (Mrace 2016, 150.000)
• To TDM or not to TDM of beta-lactams (ZONMw GGG 2017 505.000)

Other external funding

• Travel grant melatonin research Catharine van Tussenbroek Foundation (2008, 5.000)
• Analysis of meconium, Stichting Coolsingel (2013, 80.000)
• Analysis of Peth, Stichting Coolsingel (2016, 34.000)
• Dose IndividualizAtion of Beta lactam and fluoroquinolone AntiBiotics in ICU patients: to TDM or not to
  TDM and the effects on Outcome (DIABOLO-study) (de Merel 2018, 50.000)

Co-investigator

• 2nd budget source Pentoxifylline for sepsis in preterm infants: Rediscovery of an
  old drug for a new indication (365.000)
• Resistant HYpertension: MEasure to ReaCh Targets (RHYME-RCI) (2017, 454.414)
• Placenta model and nifedipine and enodtheline receptor blokkers (Stichting de Merel, 2017, 30.000)
• MRACE on drug adherence and hypertension (2014, 50.000)
• Melatonin and sleep disturbances. Nierstichting (2006, 140.000),
• ZonMw, Paracetamol and Morphine in the pediatric intensive care (2015, 402.250)
• Slaapstoornissen bij Angelman syndroom (Fonds Nutsohra, 2014, 200.000)
• Stichting Coolsingel, Wondcatheters bij baby’s (2016, 20.000)
• Stichting Coolsingel, Meropenem in Botcement (2016, 13.000)

Birgit held her inaugural lecture on Friday 14 October 2022 entitled: 'Everyone is a bit average'. You can watch it here.