Course content

Primary objectives: The students are to systematically acquire competance regarding the use of medicine, by applying knowledge attained from numerous pharmaceutical fields (pharmacology, social pharmacy, bioanalysis, and pharmacognocy).

Structure: The course begins with a general section which covers ethics and communication, and bioanalysis. There is another general section which is taught towards the end of the course which covers pharmaceutical economy. The remainder of the course is nine weeks long and deals with proper use of medication (including physiology, pathophysiology and etiology) for the following illnesses: Asthma/KOLS, pysciatriatic problems, neurology, muscle and skeletal illnesses, and cancer. The various subject areas will be taught together in relation to these illnesses and problem based learning (PBL) will be used as the primary teaching method. Other teaching methods are used between the PBL group meetings, in order to expand upon the PBL topics. There will also be laboratory work in connection with medicine analysis, a project in pharmacognocy, a role play in communication and a group assignment in ethics. For each week of the course there is a detailed list of learning objectives which have been divided into either knowledge objectives, skill objectives or educational objectives.

This course, along with the courses FRM2040 – Use of Drugs, Part I (discontinued) and FRM3020 – Use of Drugs, Part II (discontinued) present a complete picture of the use of medicine used in each of the defined human organ systems as defined in the ATC code.

Learning outcome

After going through each subject area, the student should have acquired the necessary knowledge so that he/she:

  • Can describe the individual diseases’ pathology, etiologyand symptology
  • Can clarify the principles concerning the medicine therapy in question
  • Can suggest an appropriate medicine
  • Can suggest an appropriate dosage of the medicine
  • Be familiar with the most important "problem medicines" that demand special precautions in regards to dosage and use
  • Can evaluate the advantages and possible risks of interaction in cases when more than one medication is used at the same time
  • Can identify possible side effects of medicines
  • Can evaluate medicine therapy in relation to non-medicine treatments
  • Can evalua