This is the first of a series of courses taught over three years of the program which will provide the required knowledge and skills to effectively manage patients’ drug therapy. In addition to covering selected therapeutic topics, the course will integrate relevant pathophysiology, pharmacology, clinical pharmacokinetics, selected pharmaceutics and principles of evidence-based pharmacotherapy. Principles of drug therapy in geriatrics, pediatrics and other special populations will be addressed. Various learning and teaching methodologies will be used including didactic teaching, small group case discussions, and in-depth discussions of cases in small case study seminar groups. This course will help students prepare for the Medication Therapy Management course and the other Pharmacotherapy courses.

Medication Therapy Management (MTM) involves a partnership between the patient, pharmacist, and other healthcare providers to promote safe and effective medication use so that desirable patient outcomes are attained. It is founded on the philosophy of Pharmaceutical Care, and may encompass an array of services, whereby the pharmacist employs a systematic patient-centered approach to define and achieve goals related to optimal pharmacotherapy. The MTM series of courses will be delivered longitudinally over three years of the undergraduate program, with MTM 1 being the first of the four-part course series. MTM 1 will allow students to begin to apply knowledge and develop skills needed to undertake MTM, with content drawn from co-requisite and pre-requisite courses. Lecture and laboratory sessions will be designed to facilitate guided, independent, and collaborative learning. A key element of MTM 1 is that students will have the opportunity to undertake the role of a pharmacist in a simulated community practice and will be responsible for various tasks such as conducting patient interviews, assessing the appropriateness of pharmacotherapy, providing medication-related patient education, actively participating in the medication-dispensing process, responding to drug information queries from patients and health care providers, documenting pharmacotherapeutic recommendations, and interpreting the pharmacist’s ethical and legal obligations within provincial and federal regulatory frameworks. This course will introduce and develop fundamental knowledge, skills and attitudes intrinsic to the pharmacy student’s professional identity development; these attributes will be transferable to diverse practice settings, and prepare students for their first year early experiential rotation.

This course introduces pharmacy students to Canada’s health care system, including the structures, functions and the policies that underpin health care services. Students will learn about the roles and responsibilities of the key health care providers in a variety of health care settings. Students will gain insight into how and where pharmacy and medications fit within the larger system of care. Historical context will be used to explain why the health care system exists and critical reflection will be encouraged to explore how and why the system may be evolving, especially with respect to the roles that pharmacists and other professionals play within the system. The course provides an introduction to essential management, communication, leadership, and interprofessional skills that are required by health care professionals. Interprofessional collaboration is a key component to optimal patient care and an efficient health care system. Students will participate in small groups with other health professional students to explore team work, roles and team dynamics.

Pharmacy informatics introduces students to two core types of information: 1) patient-specific information created in the care of patients and 2) knowledge-based information, which includes the scientific literature of health care. Informatics also implies the use of technology in managing information and knowledge. Students will develop the introductory knowledge and skills to assume responsibility for identifying, accessing, retrieving, creating and exchanging relevant information to ensure safe and effective patient care throughout the medication use process. This course will utilize an innovative e-Resource and ample opportunity to develop skills in this emerging area.

This course is composed of three components: 1) introduction to sociological theories and concepts that impact health and health care; 2) introduction to professionalism and ethics and 3) introduction to the ways in which individual psychology shapes and affects health and health care. Topics such as the social determinants of health and related ethical issues; the social construction of disease; and the exploration of when and why people seek health care services will be used to stimulate discussion about how social forces impact pharmacy practice. Codes of ethics and other ethical principles for guiding professional practice in pharmacy will be discussed through the analysis of ethics cases. Behaviouralist, cognitivist, developmentalist, and psychoanalytic theories will be used to help students understand the range of responses and behaviours individuals may demonstrate when dealing with health-related issues. Students will apply these theories to discussion of different patient education (counselling) approaches designed to optimize personal and health-related outcomes.

As pharmacists, you are expected to integrate your knowledge and skills gained throughout the pharmacy curriculum to provide direct patient care. Pharmacy practice is calculations intensive and accuracy is critically important to safe and effective patient care. As medication therapy experts, patients and other health care providers value and depend on pharmacists’ expertise and accuracy in pharmaceutical calculations. Throughout the course, students will be required to complete pharmaceutical calculations with a focus on accuracy. A case based approach will be taken to familiarize students with real life examples of common calculations required to practice in community and hospital settings. The objective of this course is to prepare the student to apply knowledge and skills gained to other courses in the program, such as the early practice experience (EPE 1).

Many drugs act via the receptors and other proteins that mediate cellular signalling. Such proteins can be grouped into several families on the basis of their structural and functional similarities. Examples from each family are examined at the molecular level from a pharmacological, biochemical and biophysical point of view for insight into their structure, their mechanism of action, their modulation by drugs and the underlying dysfunctions toward which the drugs are directed. Basic principles of molecular pharmacology are introduced as a tool for decoding the relationship between dose and response across all families, with an emphasis on the explicit nature of concepts such as potency and efficacy.

Achieving effective treatment of a disease while minimizing adverse effects of a drug requires rational selection, formulation and administration of an appropriate dosage form. This course teaches the scientific background and technical aspects important in dosage form design, basic dosage forms and their therapeutic applications. This course will focus on the biopharmaceutical considerations and physicochemical foundation of various dosage forms. Discussion will include preformulation factors (melting point, solubility, viscosity, dissolution, particle and solid state properties), rheology, pharmaceutical solutions, pharmaceutical powders, colloids and dispersions, complexation, chelation, and protein binding.

This course examines aspects of mammalian biochemistry, metabolism and molecular immunology pertinent to pharmacologically significant drug actions in vivo. Where appropriate the biochemical basis, mechanism, and effect of specific drugs on human physiology are also discussed. In addition this course examines the biochemical basis of pharmacogenetics and metabonomics differences seen in different human populations.

This course is designed to introduce pharmacy students to the physiological and biochemical mechanisms which lead to pathological states and includes the laboratory investigation and follow-up associated with specific diseases.

This course will examine how physiologic and biochemical processes influence the fate of drugs in the body. The interrelationship between the physiochemical properties of the drug and the rate/extent of absorption will be explored. Mathematical modeling of the plasma concentration time curves following drug administration will constitute a major part of the course. Fundamental pharmacokinetic principles and quantitative relationships will be used to determine approaches in designing dosage regimens, evaluating pharmacologic response and explaining mechanisms of drug-drug interactions. The resulting theory will form the basis for selecting a particular route of drug administration, determining the frequency of administration and identifying patient factors which require a modification of normal drug dosing regimen.

This course introduces the student to the structure of the human body and its relationship to function. Following an introduction to basic human histology, the course will use a systemic approach to the study of human anatomy.

This course will introduce students to fundamental principles of pharmacology. The principles of drug receptor interactions will be examined and various examples of protein targets of drug action shall be presented. The pharmacology of drugs that modify fundamental physiological processes such as the autonomic nervous system and endocrine and autocrine pathways will also be examined to serve as a background for future pharmacotherapy modules.

This course is the first of two early experiential rotations. Students will undertake this first EPE-1 during the summer following Year 1 (sometime between May and August). Each student will actively participate in day-to-day services within a community pharmacy practice setting, thus enabling application of knowledge, skills and values introduced in faculty-based courses and simulated practice environments (laboratories). Required activities include prescription/medication order processing, patient education, drug information provision, medication history taking, and observation of/participation in patient safety processes in the practice setting. Students also need to demonstrate effective communication skills, professionalism and teamwork during the rotation.

Self-care perspectives and pharmacotherapy is the second in a series of Pharmacotherapy courses taught over three years. In addition to covering selected therapeutic topics relating to self-care, (primarily dermatology and EENT) the course will address principles of drug therapy in the practice context of self-care in which pharmacists work unsupervised as the primary health professional contact. It will build and enhance students’ knowledge and skills in the management of minor, self-limiting and self-diagnosed ailments, which is within the scope of practice for pharmacists. Special contextual issues relating to the pharmacist’s role in self-care, particularly communicating with patients; and the pharmacist’s responsibility in accurately assessing and triaging patients, developing care plans and monitoring for this patient population, including special populations of concern. Issues of preventing drug therapy problems related to patient self-selection will be part of patient safety concerns. This course will build on content and skills from PHM101H1 and PHM105H1. The course will be aligned to the other Pharmacotherapy modules and will provide the required knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to effectively manage patients’ drug therapy in incorporating relevant schema recognition, pathophysiology, pharmacology, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmaceutics and evidence-based authoritative sources of best practice pharmacotherapy.

This course is designed for pharmacy students to develop a broad understanding of pathophysiology, pharmacology, clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacotherapy in major areas of endocrinology, nephrology and urology. The course will use a problem-based approach with emphasis on the integration and application of fundamental principles to specific clinical situations.

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge in pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, clinical pharmacokinetics and relevant pharmaceutics required to be a practitioner in infectious diseases therapeutics. The course will be taught using a variety of techniques including on-line lectures, case-based learning and small interactive group learning.

This course is designed to provide students with the knowledge in pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy, and clinical pharmacokinetics required to be a practitioner in cardiovascular therapeutics. The course will be taught using a variety of techniques including lectures and team-based learning.

This Medication Therapy Management (MTM) course is the second of the four-part series of simulated pharmacy practice courses. MTM 2 will enable a student to continue to apply knowledge and develop skills needed by a pharmacist to provide patient care, using a systematic patient-care process to define and achieve the goals of optimizing safe, effective pharmacotherapy. MTM 2 course content is drawn from relevant co- and pre-requisite courses. Lectures and simulated practice sessions are designed to facilitate independent and collaborative learning that will be transferrable to diverse practice settings and prepare a student for early experiential learning. Students will be responsible to perform and document a comprehensive patient assessment to identify, resolve and prevent drug therapy problems, and educate patients on the appropriate use of medications. Students will be required to assess a patient’s health status; integrate relevant information to recommend appropriate therapy, determine efficacy and safety endpoints for monitoring therapy, document a care plan, and appropriate follow-up parameters with patients to evaluate their response to therapy, in a simulated practice environment. Students will also actively participate in the medication dispensing process, prepare extemporaneously compounded pharmaceutical products and interpret the pharmacist’s professional, ethical and legal obligation within provincial and federal frameworks.

Medication Therapy Management 3 (MTM 3) is the third of a four-part series of simulated pharmacy practice courses that is delivered longitudinally over three years of the undergraduate program. MTM 3 builds on the skills developed in MTM 1 and MTM 2, focusing on more comprehensive, integrated patient centred care. MTM is founded on the philosophy of Pharmaceutical Care and involves a partnership between the patient, pharmacist, and other health care providers to promote safe and effective medication use to achieve desirable patient outcomes. MTM 3 provides students learning opportunities to apply and integrate materials learned through all courses in the curriculum to date, using simulated practice-based interactions to enhance their patient-care skills. Lectures will provide foundational material and skills which will be applied in the simulated interactions. Simulated interactions will focus on developing effective patient-centered management of multidimensional drug-therapy anchored in a professional context, in preparation for the student’s second year practice experiential course.

Pharmacists are required to apply research evidence in practice. As health care providers, pharmacists discern and translate both the quality and relevance of health information with the goal of optimizing patient outcomes. This course introduces students to clinical trial designs typically used in health care. The course will explore core principles in experimental and non-experimental research designs. The focus will be on randomized controlled trials as they are the primary method of generating evidence for therapeutic interventions. Students will learn how various research approaches are selected, designed, executed, analyzed, published and applied (including critical appraisal). The course covers a broad range of research topics at the introductory to intermediate level. Students will develop foundational knowledge and skills in research methods, statistics and ethics that will be applied in pharmacotherapy modules.

This course surveys the economic aspects of the pharmaceutical sector. The course will use the methods of economic analysis to investigate how markets allocate resources, when they work well and the role for government when they do not work well. Specific topics include the economics of the development of new drugs; economic aspects of drug insurance, economic appraisal of new drugs (“pharmacoeconomics”); and economic models of the pharmacist labour market.

Management skills and related communication and collaboration skills are essential for success in any field of pharmacy practice. This course will provide students with an introduction to basic concepts in management, communication and collaboration with other health and business professionals, and will culminate with the development of a business plan that enables students to apply knowledge and skills. This course is also designed to give students a broad overview in collaborative leadership theory so that they are better prepared to work effectively in their chosen field. Students will learn how pharmacy practice in different settings has evolved from 1985 to 2000 to 2015 as well as how practice may evolve in the future. In doing so students will develop a greater appreciation of the skills required to deliver effective patient care-focused services. Overall, the aim of this course is to equip students with the ability to apply their clinical, pharmaceutical and management skills to provide high quality services that are patient focused and demonstrate value for money.

This course will provide an introduction to physical assessment of patients. Students will engage in lectures, on-line activities, and skills practice in a laboratory setting. This course includes a module pertaining to the administration of substances by injection that allows students to meet the competencies required by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Ontario College of Pharmacists.

This course will build upon basic pharmacology and medicinal chemistry to make links between the basic sciences and demonstrate how basic principles can be used to improve clinical therapy. It will also include critical evaluation of evidence for specific mechanisms and therapies. The format of the course to address these issues will be online questions that are designed to illustrate these points. The questions will be either multiple choice or short answer. Online feedback will be provided.

This course will provide an introduction to pharmaceutical analysis and discuss the importance of assuring the pharmaceutical quality of medicinal products with an emphasis on establishment of quality control assays and specifications, bioequivalence testing of generic drugs, special considerations for biopharmaceutical products, and the regulatory process in Canada. In addition, the course will discuss the application of analytic techniques in clinical laboratory medicine with a focus on commonly used tests to monitor patient health and the therapeutic use of drugs, including tests for personalized drug therapy. The course includes a laboratory component which will present drug formulation and related quality control issues.

The course provides a brief introduction to the general biology of organisms, and an overview of the host response to infection. Attention is then focused on common bacterial, fungal, viral and parasitic infections of man, and their epidemiology, prevention and treatment. Other topics include sterilization, disinfection, and a survey of antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents.

This course is the second of two early experiential rotations. Students will undertake EPE-2 during the summer following Year 2 (sometime between May and August). Each student will actively participate in day-to-day services within an institutional pharmacy practice setting, thus enabling application of knowledge, skills and values introduced in faculty-based courses and simulated practice environments (laboratories). Required activities include prescription/medication order processing, patient education, drug information provision, medication history taking, and observation of/participation in patient safety processes in the practice setting. Students also need to demonstrate effective communication skills, professionalism and teamwork during the rotation.

This course is designed to provide pharmacy students with the pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy and clinical pharmacokinetics required to be a practitioner in oncology, hematology and immunology therapeutics. The course will be taught using a variety of techniques including on-line lectures, case-based learning and small interactive group learning.

This course is designed to provide pharmacy students with the knowledge in pathobiology, pharmacology, pharmacotherapy and clinical pharmacokinetics required to be a practitioner in neuropsychiatric therapeutics. The course may be taught using a variety of techniques including on-line lectures, case-based learning and small interactive group learning.