A simple model for the identification of drug effects

This paper presents a new model for the identification of drug effects. The main advantage of this model over standard models is its simplicity. In fact, the proposed model establishes an affine relation between the drug infusion rate and the corresponding effect on the patient where there are few parameters to estimate, while standard models usually assume a nonlinear relation with many parameters to estimate. Furthermore, it is shown that the new model has a good ability to describe real data. Here, the case study focuses on the muscle relaxant atracurium and its influence on the neuromuscular blockade, but other drugs such as the hypnotic propofol and the analgesic remifentanil and their influence on the depth of anaesthesia may also be considered.