Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Vol. 24, Suppl. A, 2002, pp. 21
ISSN 0379-0355
Copyright 2002 Prous Science, S.A.
CCC: 0379-0355/2002
http://www.prous.com

A Core Curriculum in General Pharmacology for Medical Students in Spain

J.J. Meana, I. Bellido¹ and J.E. Baños²

Department of Pharmacology, University of the Basque Country; ¹Department of Pharmacology, University of Málaga; ²Department of Experimental Sciences and Health, University Pompeu Fabra, Spain

According to professional and academic representatives, the development of a core curriculum in pharmacology represents a necessity for the instruction of medical students. The concept of "core" helps to define explicitly the essential knowledge that every medical student should master before becoming a physician. Additionally, the core curriculum could represent a consensus tool among professionals to decide matters such as promotion and tenure.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the educational approach to general pharmacology taken by different Spanish medical faculties. The presence and distribution of the topics in the instructional programs to be taught in lecture format Programa teórico were compared. A topic was included in the defined core curriculum if it could be identified as a teaching entity in more than 75% of the available programs.

Instructional programs in pharmacology were requested from the 27 medical faculties in Spain. A response rate of 82% (22 medical schools) was achieved. A prominent feature of pharmacology teaching was the variability between medical schools in their educational approaches. The most usual approach included a general pharmacology course within the basic science curriculum and a clinical pharmacology and/or pharmacotherapeutics course as a part of a clinical training period. The present study focused on the analysis of the former.

The average value of credit units for lecture presentations, as defined within the programs, was 6 (SD 1.5). According to the available information, the topics identified in more than 75% of the faculties required an average of 57.9 h. A total number of 15 main areas could be identified. The coverage of these topics was as follows:

A distinguishing feature of some programs was a disease-based organization of topics rather than a mechanistic approach. For example, drugs for heart failure, or for myocardial ischemia vs. nitrovasodilators, b-adrenoceptor antagonists or positive inotropic drugs.

In short, the lecture topics were very similar among the different faculties. Most general pharmacology programs could easily agree on which "core" concepts should be included in an ideal medical curriculum. The variation was more considerable in the time devoted to lectures. Specific details and topics quite different from the core curriculum will be discussed subsequently.

Methods and Findings in Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Vol. 24, Suppl. A, 2002, pp. 21
ISSN 0379-0355 Copyright 2002 Prous Science, S.A. CCC: 0379-0355/2002 http://www.prous.com