2009/2010 Medical Pharmacology Course InformationCourse Objectives:This course is intended to instruct students in the basic mechanisms by whichdrugs interact with human cells and tissues. It is not intended to be a course in appliedtherapeutics, or clinical pharmacology, whereby students learn how to apply a specificdose of a specific drug to a specific combination of pathological conditions. Rather, ouroverall intent for this course is to provide students with a basic foundation in theprinciples of pharmacology and therapeutics; armed with this information, students arethen prepared to enter clinical rotations with the ability to understand the rationale forprescribing specific drugs in specific clinical situations. While discussion of therapeuticparadigms is an important part of many topics in the course, the primary objective ofthis course is not one of comprehensive therapeutic instruction. Rather, it is to provideexposure to and establish an understanding of basic pharmacological mechanisms andprinciples. This understanding will equip the student to eventually make rational andcorrect therapeutic decisions, which should be taught in the appropriate clinical setting. Lectures: Lecture attendance is not required, but is strongly recommended. The lecturesare the heart of this course, and students will miss much by relying solely on reprintedhandouts or assigned readings to learn the material. The most consistent predictor ofstudent success in this course has always been faithful lecture attendance. Examquestions are derived from information and concepts presented and explained in thelectures.Course Materials:Textbooks: Students may use either the 6th (2007) edition of Rang, Dale, Ritter andMoore: Pharmacology or the 11th (2009) edition of Katzung: Basic and ClinicalPharmacology, as a primary course textbook, and readings in both books are assignedfor each lecture or multi-lecture topic. Both texts are equivalent in depth andappropriateness for this course, and students are given the choice of using either. Thereadings are required, rather than recommended, but we do not draw exam items solelyfrom the assigned text readings. It is our intent that these reading assignments arenecessary for mastery of the material. We feel that much of the task rote memorizationof drug names, applications, and side effects that mastery of the course materialdemands, is most appropriately accomplished via individual study using anappropriately detailed text. We strongly discourage the use of a review book (e.g.Lippencott) or “pharm cards” as a sole or primary source of information. These are toosuperficial to serve as substitutes for the assigned readings. They may, however, beuseful secondary study guides. We recommend two helpful supplemental sources,which provide a more in-depth discussion of therapeutic principles and practical clinicalpharmacology, for those who are interested. These sources are Goodman andGilman’s Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, which is comprehensivelyencyclopedic, and recognized as the most authoritative pharmacology reference text,and Pharmacology and Therapeutics: Principles to Practice, by Waldman and Terzic,which is a new, highly readable and authoritative text written primarily for clinicians. It isthe best alternative to Goodman and Gilman. In addition, for exam review, werecommend the use of Pharmacology Smart Charts (part of the Lange Smart Chartseries), a well-organized “flash card”-type data set, in a spiral-bound format, which paststudents have found extremely helpful for memorizing drug names and associatedfacts. Website: A variety of course materials (lecture handouts, study guides, problem sets)are available on the course web site at http://www.uic.edu/classes/pcol/pcol425/. Theclass schedule and syllabus (including handout links) are updated as need arises. Please check the version of the web site you access. Out-of-date versions may beretrieved from browser caches. Make a habit of using the “refresh” or “reload” button onyour browser, to make sure you are seeing the most recent version.Exams and Grading:The course is graded on the basis of four non-cumulative exams over two semesters. Each exams comprises 35-45 multiple choice questions, and is weighted according tothe proportion of lectures, out of the total 85 for the course, that it covers. The finalgrade is based on the weighted average of these four exams. In the past, passinggrades have been above 55-60%, and honors grades have been above 85-90%. Graduate students receive a separate grade for each semester. They take the samemultiple choice exams as the medical students, in a separate room, and are required tosit for an additional essay exam following each multiple-choice
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