Monday, November 05, 2007

First Learning Block is all set

We will be meeting with Dr. Michal Klompas who specializes in PharmacoEpidemiology. What is pharmacoEpidemiology (other than a really big word)?

Pharmacoepidemiology may be defined as the study of the utilization and effects of drugs in large numbers of people. To accomplish this study, pharmacoepidemiology borrows from both pharmacology and epidemiology. Thus, pharmacoepidemiology can be called a bridge science spanning both pharmacology and epidemiology.

Pharmacology is the study of the effect of drugs and clinical pharmacology is the study of effect of drugs in humans. Part of the task of clinical pharmacology is to provide a risk benefit assessment for the effect of drugs in patients.

Epidemiology can be defined as the study of the distribution and determinants of diseases in populations. Epidemiological studies can be divided into two main types: 1.Descriptive epidemiology describes disease and/or exposure and may consist of calculating rates, e.g., incidence and prevalence. 2. Analytic epidemiology includes two types of studies: observational studies, such as case-control and cohort studies, and experimental studies which would include clinical trials such as randomised clinical trials.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds great!