Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE CPH3903

 
TITLE Accessing, Evaluating and Reporting Scientific Data in Pharmacology and Toxicology

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit will provide students with a broad overview of the various data sources available, and reporting techniques used in pharmacology and toxicology. Different areas of pharmacology and toxicology will be addressed, including basic research, drug development, industrial areas, identifying and providing relevant drug and poisons information to professionals, clinical research, presenting data in scientific publications and delivering presentations.

In addition, approaches to disseminating unbiased data to the general public through the use of different types of media and electronic portals will also be discussed. This will also include topics such as promotion of correct medicine use (e.g. correct antibiotic use, minimization of medicine wastage etc), reporting of local and international scientific developments, research project status reporting, etc.

Study-unit Aims:

- Provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to source, evaluate, and report pharmacological and pharmacotoxicological data within the context of scientific community standards as well as within the context of the general public.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Describe the use and application of various curated and peer-reviewed pharmacological and toxicological data sources;
- Discuss data collection methods for specific aims, e.g. pharmacovigilance;
- Disseminate pharmacological information correctly, taking into consideration the type of information, the medium of dissemination and the audience it needs to be disseminated to;
- Select and evaluate pharmacological data from different sources, in terms of reliability, relevance and applicability to a specific reporting scope;
- Report appropriately.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Recognise and apply data mining strategies in pharmacology;
- Extract and evaluate data from major repositories, and focus it in terms of relevance and importance, in order to pass it on to drug or toxicology information services;
- Prepare scientific briefs, documents, reports, manuscripts etc, related to pharmacology and pharmacotoxicology, for dissemination to the scientific community;
- Prepare information using appropriate terminology and media, for dissemination to the general public.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main text:

Material will be provided directly to students.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Seminar & Independent Study

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM1 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Alison Catania
Mariella Borg Buontempo
Maya Injez Camilleri Sacco
Maria A. Cordina (Co-ord.)
Anthony Fenech
Michelle Gafa
Janet Mifsud
Vanessa Petroni

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit