Thomas van Gelder (31) is a hospital pharmacist and PhD candidate at the University Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands. He completed his BSc and MSc in Pharmacy at Utrecht University. His PhD research focuses on drug-related outcomes in critically ill patients, covering a broad range of topics such as the risk of delirium associated with different sedatives, intravenous drug and parenteral nutrition incompatibilities in neonatal intensive care, and prescribing errors in paediatric intensive care units. As part of his PhD, Thomas completed an internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where he joined clinical rounds with the critical care pharmacy team.Thomas has a strong interest in pharmaceutical compounding, which he considers a defining element of the pharmacy profession. He believes it reflects the unique craftsmanship of pharmacists and their essential role in patient care. In his current research on compounded, sterilized ready-to-administer syringes for intensive care settings, he brings together his two main areas of passion: critical care pharmacy and compounding.

Abstract: Ready-to-administer (RTA) syringes enable rapid and safe intravenous drug administration in ICUs but often result in drug waste due to their short shelf-life (31 days) when produced aseptically. Prefilled sterilized syringes (PFSSs), produced by compounding hospital pharmacies, have a longer shelf-life (up to 18 months) and may reduce this waste. We compared drug waste from RTA aseptic syringes and PFSSs in the 32-bed ICU of the University Medical Center Utrecht over an 8-year period (2015–2023). Three RTA syringes (intervention group) were switched from aseptic production to PFSSs, while five others (control group) remained aseptically produced. PFSSs significantly reduced drug waste from 31% to 5% in the intervention group (p<0.001), while the control group saw no significant change.