Big Impact in Tiny World

Tam Earns Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award from American College of Clinical Pharmacy

September 18 — Recognized as a national authority on pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics and optimizing antimicrobial dosing regimens, University of Houston College of Pharmacy Professor Vincent H. Tam, Pharm.D., FIDSA, BCIDP, has been selected to receive the 2024 American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award. The award and his accompanying lecture, "Personalized Combination Antimicrobial Therapy," will be presented during the opening session of the ACCP 2024 Annual Meeting Oct. 12-15 in Phoenix, Ariz.

The ACCP Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award recognizes an individual, including ACCP member and nonmember nominees, who has made outstanding contributions to pharmacotherapeutics in their field.

A UHCOP faculty member since 2002, Tam holds joint appointments in the college’s departments of Pharmacy Practice & Translational Research and Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences. He has authored or coauthored eight book chapters and more than 190 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including a 2014 paper published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy which was recognized as the Pharmacotherapy Paper of the Year Award by the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP).

Over the course of his career, Tam has received more than $12 million in research support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, nonprofit associations and foundations, and companies within the pharmaceutical industry. He also is co-inventor on U.S. patents for novel formulations for a last-resort antimicrobial drug and a novel rapid diagnostic system to help guide rational dosing of antimicrobials at the bedside.

Elizabeth Dodds Ashley, Pharm.D., MHS, FCCP, FIDP, BCIDP, professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and operations director at Duke Antimicrobial Stewardship Outreach Network, was enthusiastic in her support of the honor for Tam.

"He is an international thought leader in designing optimized treatments for patients with resistant infections and is actively engaged in making sure these concepts are included in new drug development platforms," Dodds Ashley noted in her letter to ACCP. "His approach has proven to directly impact patient care. It is no overstatement to say that Vincent’s work optimizing therapy for patients with resistant infections is being broadly applied in hospitalized patients every day."

Tam’s research has directly contributed to changes in international guidelines and microbiology laboratory testing recommendations. For example, he served as a coauthor on the "International Consensus Guidelines for the Optimal Use of the Polymyxins" that was endorsed by multiple major infectious diseases, clinical pharmacy and critical care organizations. Incorporating Tam’s own research, the updated guidelines radically shifted the antimicrobial agent polymyxin B from a status as “drugs of last resort,” due to its toxicity profile, to the preferred agent in its class.

"His groundbreaking findings have had a significant impact on shaping the therapeutic use of antibiotics," wrote Angela D.M. Kashuba, BScPharm, Pharm.D., DABCP, FCP, dean and John A. Margaret P. McNeill Sr. Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, in support of Tam. "His innovative use of mathematical modeling and simulation of biological processes has continued to bring new discoveries at the host‐pathogen‐drug interface."

Tam’s previous honors include the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Foundation Literature Award for Sustained Contributions (2019), Fellow of IDSA (2018), team member of the ASHP Best Practices Award-winning team at the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (now CHI St. Luke's Baylor Medical Center) Center for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Epidemiology in 2010, and University of Houston Excellence in Research and Scholarship Award in 2008.

A past member on the boards of directors for both SIDP and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, Tam currently serves as a standing member of the NIH Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology (DMPA) Study Section.