It is the hope of the instructors that by the end of this course, you will have grasped some of the building blocks necessary to ensure that your patients receive the right dose of any given drug. To ensure the right dose, you will need to:

• locate treatments of choice
  (Drug Information Resources component;section leads: Dr. Birchfield, Ms. Jankowski),
• determine usual drug efficacy and toxicity (read primary literature and understand the methods by which the data were obtained)
  (Research Methods component; section lead: Dr. Sullivan), and
• calculate patient-specific doses
  (Pharmacy Calculations component; section lead: Dr. O'Sullivan)

The instructors of this course expect you to:

• Attend all drug information and research methods lectures and complete all assignments on time in order to maximize your learning in this class.
• Locate and read all required readings. A list of these readings can be found below in the section titled "Journal articles you will read for this class." You are welcome to begin locating them prior to the start of class.
• Read all required material prior to the class session in which that material will be discussed and come to class with any lecture materials printed or electronically available.
• Demonstrate technical writing skills consistent with the ability of students obtaining a doctoral degree.
• Do all of your own writing. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty and grounds for dismissal. You will cite resources you use in your writing, but you are expected to not plagiarize the work of others. There is available an excellent outline of academic dishonesty that you should read before you start writing for this class.
• Be comfortable with use of the following computer technology:
  • regularly reading email and responding when appropriate
  • pulling attachments off of email
  • accessing and printing documents from the web
  • accessing and printing Adobe Acrobat files (Free Download)

 

Assignment Links

• You will write a drug information paper, which will assess your learning of the drug information sources and research methods portion of this class. The first step in writing your paper will be to come up with a question to answer. A good drug information paper question will ask about some aspect of a specific drug or drug class used for a specific condition. In your drug information question, you need to specify the drug or drug class, and the medical condition for which it is to be used. An example of a reasonable drug information paper question is, "How effective is cranberry juice for preventing urinary tract infections?" You will be doing two drug information resource assignments to help you prepare for writing this paper as well as become more familiar with tertiary and secondary drug information resources (for which your knowledge will be assessed in-class using the TurningPoint Response Cards..
• You will be taking calculations quizzes and exams to test your understanding of how to perform pharmacy calculations.
• Your understanding of the material in the research methods part of this course will be tested during the final examination.

Required texts (all available at the University Book Store south campus branch and via Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com):

• Malone PM, Kier KL, Stanovich JE. Drug information: a guide for pharmacists. 3rd ed. New York (NY): McGraw Hill Medical Division, 2006.
• O'Sullivan TA. Understanding pharmacy calculations. Washington DC: American Pharmaceutical Association, 2002. ISBN: 1-58212-033-1.
• Hulley SB, Cummings SR, Browner WS, Grady D, Hearst N, Newman TB. Designing clinical research: an epidemiologic approach. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams, & Wilkins, 2006.

  Required device (available at the University Book Store)

• TurningPoint ResponseCardRF. Thomson. Available at the University Bookstore South Campus and Main Branches. You will need to register the card ID with Cher Espina-Nguyen in the student services office.

Other reading:

• The research methods/drug information syllabus, on this web site.
• Selected journal articles, noted below on this web site.
• You will find many tutorials and other information assembled on Healthlink's help page. There is a nice tutorial on answering a drug information question on the Healthlinks site.

Course Schedule

The class will meet on M, W, and F from 11:30-12:20 in room T-747. On 9/28, 10/1, and 10/3, 1/3 the class will meet in T-747, 1/3 in or near the PCLC, and 1/3 in the Health Sciences Library (HSL) computer classroom.

• This class does not have a scheduled final exam.

Format for References and Citations

• Information about citing methods and reference format has been consolidated into a single page.
• When citing electronic sources, please be sure to turn off Microsoft Word's hotlink auto-format function if you find that it turns your pasted web addresses into hotlinks (i.e., turns them blue and underlines them).

Readings for this class

To familiarize you with various types of medical literature, you will be asked to read several medical journal articles, as well as readings from the required textbook "Designing Clinical Research." All readings are listed below, along with the dates you will need to have completed these readings. For most articles you will need to go to the electronic journals web page for the library. You will find it easiest to print the Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version. All readings are available through PubMed as PDF or computer readable files. Search via author names, or for the JAMA articles, by issue.

Reading list

Speakers

Mary Birchfield, PharmD, RM(NRM), MT(ASCP), Clinical Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

David Blough, PhD. Research Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Denise Boudreau, RPh, PhD. Investigator, Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies. Affiliate Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Beth Devine, PharmD, MBA. Research Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington

Jacqueline Gardner, MPH, PhD. Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Louis Garrison, PhD, Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington

Thomas K. Hazlet, PharmD, DPH. Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Terry Jankowski, MLS, AHIP, Head, Information and Education Services, Health Sciences Libraries, Liaison to Schools of Pharmacy, Dentistry, and Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington.

Eric Johnson, PhD. Affiliate Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington

Teresa O'Sullivan, BSPharm, PharmD, BCPS. Lecturer and Director, Experiential Education, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Danny Shen, PhD. Chair, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington

Leilani St. Anna, MLIS, AHIP, Information Management Librarian, Health Sciences Libraries, Liaison to School of Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, WWAMI, and UWPN, University of Washington

Sean Sullivan, BSPharm, PhD. Professor, Department of Pharmarcy; Director, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

Ken Thummel, PhD. Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

David L. Veenstra, PharmD, PhD, Affiliate Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington.

John Watkins, BSPharm, MPH, BCPS, Pharmacy Manager, Formulary Development, Premera Blud Cross; Affiliate Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Universtiy of Washington.

Charles Westergard, BSPharm, MBA. Vice-President of Product Development, HealthProLink, Inc.

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Last updated:4 December 2007