No longer maintained, but made available here.

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Pharmaco

Version 1.1 of PKBugs is still required in order to perform simple “point-and-click” specification of population PK models (i.e. without using the BUGS language) but Pharmaco will allow WinBUGS code generated using the “Print model” option in PKBugs 1.1 to be run directly through WinBUGS 1.4.

This makes accessible to the population PK analyst the various new features of WinBUGS 1.4, such as the ability to run scripts in “batch-mode” and the facility to specify the structural model in terms of differential equations via WBDiff.

Some very minor alterations to the WinBUGS code generated using PKBugs 1.1’s “Print model” option are required before that code can be run under the Pharmaco interface in WinBUGS 1.4: the loop (over “i” and “j”) defining the “omega” matrix should be replaced by a single line of code in which “omega” is specified in terms of WinBUGS 1.4’s matrix-valued version of the “inverse(.)” function.

Upgrade patch for PKBugs 1.1

This patch incorporates into the software a new menu option, namely “Export model”, that will make this modification for you, i.e. WinBUGS code generated using the “Export model” option will run under WinBUGS 1.4 without any alterations (as long as the Pharmaco interface has been installed). (Note that with the upgrade patch installed, “Export model” should be used instead of “Print model”.)

Notes:

1. Pharmaco includes all of the 28 “single dose” models described in Section 2.1 of the PKBugs User Guide. These are used in exactly the same way as in WinBUGS 1.3/PKBugs 1.1, e.g.
   
model[j] <- pkIVbol2(theta[i,1:p], time[j], dose).
2. If you wish to speed up your analysis, try appending “.M” to the model name, e.g.
   
model[j] <- pkIVbol2.M(theta[i,1:p], time[j], dose)
model[j] <- log.pk.model.M(2,theta[i, 1:p], ...).

    

   If the structural model is complex, this will usually speed things up. It may, however, slow things down instead, so beware!