Department of Pharmacology

Eligibility / Admission procedure, refer to Guide to Admissions (Supplement-M) https://www.amucontrollerexams.com

The student during the training program should acquire the following competencies:

Cognitive domain

• Describe and apply pharmacological principles to explain the mechanism/s of the effects of drugs used in diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases of all systems of human body.

• Explain pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of drugs.

• Describe mechanisms of drug-drug interactions and their clinical importance.

• Apply and integrate knowledge of pathophysiology of diseases and its modulation by drugs.

• Acquire knowledge on pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics/principles of pharmacoeconomics/pharmacoepidemiology, including drug utilization studies.

• Acquire knowledge and understanding of principles of Good clinical practice (GCP) and Good laboratory practice (GLP) guidelines

• Acquire knowledge on essential medicines/pharmacovigilance/and apply the principle of biostatistics in the evaluation and interpretation of drug safety and efficacy studies

• Describe how to evaluate, analyse and monitor preclinical and clinical data in drug discovery

• Able to integrate principles of immunology in biochemistry.

• Demonstrate knowledge of basics of research methodology, develop a research protocol, conduct the study, record experimental observations, analyse data using currently available statistical software, interpret results and disseminate these results and to have the potential ability to pursue further specializations and eventually be competent to guide students.

• Describe the principles of teaching - learning technology towards application and take interactive classroom lectures, modules for problem-based learning (PBL), case discussions, small group discussions, seminars, Journal club and research presentations

• Demonstrate knowledge about computer assisted learning (CAL) softwares and ability to use them efficiently to promote learning of pharmacology.

• Demonstrate knowledge of principles of Instrumentation/about recent advances and trends in research in the field of pharmacology and clinical pharmacology.

• Acquire knowledge on generic drugs and generic prescription/rational use of drugs and prescription auditing/about antimicrobial stewardship programs and strategies for containment of antibiotic resistance/on animal toxicity studies/on common poisoning/on the legal and ethical issues involved in drug development and research/in Biostatistics including use of statistical softwares:

• Estimation Sample size for a clinical trial

• Scales of measurement, data display, measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode)

• Dispersion of data (variance, standard deviation)

• Selection of tests (of significance) and their applicability

• Correlation and regression analysis

• Basics of systematic reviews and meta-analysis  

• Affective domain

• Effectively explain to patients, the effects and side effects of drugs, including the need for medication adherence.

• Communicate effectively with pharmacological reasoning with students, peers, staff and faculty, and other members of the health care team on rational use of drugs and improving spontaneous reporting of adverse events.

• Demonstrate respect in interactions with peers, and other healthcare professionals/ethical behaviour and integrity in one’s work.

• Demonstrate ability to generate awareness about the use of generic drugs in patients.

• Acquire skills for self-directed learning to keep up with developments in the field and to continuously build to improve on skills, expertise and perpetual professional development.

• Psychomotor domain

• Able to predict efficacy and adverse effects associated with use of drugs, along with causality assessment.

• Demonstrate skills for prescription writing.

• Perform major in vivo and in vitro animal experiments.

• Observe and understand basic principles of working of important advanced techniques, like High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).

• Demonstrate standard operating procedures of various methods and techniques used in clinical trials and research.

• Determine levels of common poisons in blood

• Demonstrate presentation skills at academic meetings, publications and writing research projects for funding agencies.

• Be able to analyze and evaluate a research paper

• By the end of the course, the trainee should have acquired practical skills in the following:

• In vivo and ex vivo experiments, like organ bath, analgesiometer, physiography/polygraph, convulsiometer, plethysmograph, learning and memory, models for affective disorders.
• Administration of drugs by various routes (subcutaneous, intravenous, intraperitoneal) in experimental animals
• Collection of blood samples and oral gavage in experimental animals
• Preparation and administration of a drug solution in appropriate strength and volume
• Experiments to show dose response curve of agonists (in the presence or absence of an antagonist) on various biological tissues, like

• Isolated rabbit/rat/ guinea-pig intestine

• Isolated rat uterus

• Determination of EC50, ED50, pD2 and pA2 values of drugs
• Perform in vivo experiments to study effect of mydriatics and miotics on rabbit eye
• Perform in vivo experiments to study effect of antiepileptic drugs using animal models of epilepsy
• Perform in vivo experiments to study effect of analgesics using animal models of analgesia
• Perform in vivo experiments to study effects of drugs on learning, memory and motor coordination
• Estimate toxic drug levels using chemical and biological tests (alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, barbiturates, salicylates) by commonly used methods)
• Clinical pharmacology
• Prepare protocol for a clinical trial
• Prepare Informed consent form and participant information sheet for research involving human participants
• Report Serious Adverse Effect (SAE)
• Evaluate promotional drug literature
• Prepare “Drug Information Sheet” (WHO criteria)
• Interpret bioavailability parameters with the help of given pharmacokinetics data
• Perform causality assessment and report ADR as per Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI)

At the end of the MD training programme in Pharmacology, the student should acquire competencies in the following areas: