Due to curricular integration in many medical schools, clinical pharmacology is no longer a dedicated course taught by clinical pharmacologists. This calls for new approaches to clinical pharmacology teaching with aims to be complete and integrated with other medical disciplines. Furthermore, the clinical pharmacology teaching should be presented consistently across the curriculum. This was the start of a new form of education in pharmacology: Teaching Resource Centre Pharmacology. A new, uniform graphical symbol language was designed (in Adobe Illustrator) in order to graphically display physiology, pathophysiology on organ level and at the cellular level, and pharmacological mechanisms. With the new symbol language, students are able to easily recognize cellular processes and e.g. different kinds of receptors. Mechanisms of drug action are always preceded by the pathophysiology enhancing integration of the subject. The program runs in Microsoft Access on an internal network; thus giving the advantage of monitoring students' actions with TRC. Another advantage of this database is the possibility to easily adjust graphics, text and questions; e.g. in case of new drugs. In the future TRC Pharmacology is aimed to run on the Internet.

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

Attendees will learn how clinical pharmacology is taught across a medicine curriculum in a consistent way, using a dynamic database. Participants can be encouraged to teach pharmacology in a similar setting and/or cooperate with TRC.

E.A.Dubois
Leiden University Medical Center
Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands. Phone: +31 71 5262322
Fax: +31 71 5266857
Email: E.A.Dubois@lumc.nl

CO-AUTHORS:
K.L. Franson°, F. Cornet°, J.M.A. van Gerven°, J.H. Bolk*, A.F. Cohen°. °TRC Pharmacology, Centre for Human Drug Research, Zernikedreef 10, 2333 CL Leiden, The Netherlands.
*Leiden University Medical Center, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, The Netherlands.
Phone: K.L.Franson +31 71 5246462
Fax: K.L.Franson +31 71 5246499
Email: kfranson@chdr.nl
fcornet@chdr.nl
jg@chdr.nl
j.h.bolk@lumc.nl
ac@chdr.nl