COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT:
The University of Cape Town, in collaboration with the World Health
Organisation Drug Action Programme and the University of Groningen
Faculty of Medicine will be holding the first
AFRICAN COURSE FOR PROBLEM-BASED PHARMACOTHERAPY TEACHING
25 November - 6 December 1996
Cape Town, South Africa
COURSE OBJECTIVE
To teach teachers of pharmacology and therapeutics to equip their
students with adequate skills and knowledge to prescribe drugs
rationally. The course will enable participants to plan, develop and
implement the problem-based teaching method at their local medical
shool or teaching institution.
COURSE RATIONALE
Irrational drug choice is prevalent in both the industrialized and
developing countries. As a result drug therapy may prove ineffective,
unneccessarily expensive or unsafe. Contempory medical education
emphasizes diagnosis. Undergraduate teaching in therapeutics is
still a neglected topic in most institutions.
To respond to the need to teach the skills needed for rational drug
choice and prescription, a teaching method was developed by the
University of Groningen (the Netherlands), based on the theories of
problem-solving and normative decision analysis. It introduces a
logical, step-by-step approach to a patient problem: setting
therapeutic objectives, selecting appropriate (pharmaco)therapy, and
monitoring the response to therapy. It also emphasizes the
importance of correct prescribing and good patient-doctor
communication. The essentials of this model are explained in the
GUIDE TO GOOD PRESCRIBING, a WHO Drug Action Programme publication.
The effects of the course were evaluated in 1991 and 1992 in 7
medical schools in developed and developing countries. The results
showed that the training course significantly improved the ability of
students to solve written patient problems. Both retention and
transfer effect were present at least 6 months after the training
session, in all 7 medical schools.
The University of Groningen is unable to meet the demand from
therapeutics teachers in Africa to partcipate in the Problem-based
Pharmacotherapy Teaching Course. Because of its particular interest
in medical education and insights into the needs of teachers in
medical schools in Africa, the University of Cape Town (UCT) has been
selected as the most suitable medical school to hold the first
African Course for Problem-based Pharmacotherapy Teaching. This
reflects the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre status of
UCT's Department of Pharmacology.
COURSE FEE
The course fee is US$ 2 900; including full board and lodging,
tuition fees, and educational material, but excluding travel expenses.
APPLICATION DEADLINE
1 August 1996
MORE INFORMATION
For more information, and requests for application forms, please
contact:
Julia Stallard
Postgraduate Conference Division
University of Cape Town Medical School
Observatory
7925
South Africa
e-mail: julia@medicine.uct.ac.za
tel: 27-21-406 6407
fax: 27-21-448 6263