Table 3.

Key outputs and features of the different analysis tools

	Method
	NONMEM	WinNonlin	GraphPad Prism 6.0	HN-Nonlin	ICEstimator 1.2	IVART
Ease of use
Free				✔	✔	✔
96-well formata				✔		✔
Batch analysis of multiple drugs		✔	✔	✔		✔
Batch analysis of multiple isolates	✔e	✔	✔			✔
Offline processing		✔	✔	✔
Key output
IC50 estimate	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Slope estimate	✔	✔	✔		✔	✔
Confidence interval of estimates	✔	✔	✔		✔	✔
Success criteria and warning signs		✔	✔		✔	✔
Dose–response curve		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Data processing and analysis
Data conversion		Critical	Critical	Easy	Critical	Easy
Approximate time needed for data conversion (seconds)b, c		45	25	25	25	25
Data upload/entry		Critical	Critical	Easy	Critical	Easy
Approximate time needed for data upload and processing (seconds)b, d		120	15	20	300	90
Approximate total time needed to obtain estimates (seconds)		165	40	45	325	115

^aBased on the capability to enter the data in 96-well format

^bBased on the capability to run one isolate with five different drugs in duplicates distributed on two different 96-well plates

^cTime measurement includes the time needed to transfer raw data into a ‘converter’ spreadsheet and double checking the converted data to ensure that raw data was correctly entered and converted

^dTime measurement includes the time needed to transfer the converted raw data into the corresponding programs until the outputs were successfully transferred into a separate analysis spreadsheet

^eFor NONMEM, data from all isolates are modelled simultaneously