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Website for Cardiovascular and Autonomic Pharmacology Programmed Problem Sets in Pharmacology Active Learning Site

The internet links presented below provide computer-based educational programs designed for use as learning/study aids by medical students taking pharmacology. Each site has been reviewed by Dr. Powers (the Medical Pharmacology course directory), who has prepared a brief description of the format and topic areas covered. Simply click the highlighted text to be transferred to the site. These public sites are available for use free of charge due to the generosity and collegiality of the faculty and institutions maintaining the sites. The sites have links for you to email comments or suggestions, or notify them of problems. If you contact the individual(s) maintaining the site, please respect the efforts they are making to improve and facilitate medical education, and be cordial and constructive in your comments.

Important Notice: Neither Dr. Powers, the Department of Pharmacology, nor New York Medical College are responsible for the content or maintenance of the internet sites listed below. These sites are provided as optional study aids, and study of these sites is not formally required for the Medical Pharmacology course at New York Medical College. Site descriptions express the impressions of Dr. Powers after review of the sites as potential study aids. Each student is responsible for making his or her own decision on the value of these resources for their program of study in Medical Pharmacology.

Description: This site is maintained by the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. It has three learning aids for students studying pharmacology.

The Structure and Function Pathway presents text and figures describing the actions of various drugs at multiple levels (anatomical to physiological to molecular).

The Drug List Pathway is a searchable database which includes site of action, mechanism, indications, contraindications, adverse effects, etc., etc. of various autonomic and cardiovascular drugs. It also has figures with drug structures, and audio files with pronunciation of drug names.

The Virtual Lab Pathway presents a series of "simulated dog labs" in which you can observe the effects of different drugs on blood pressure responses, and see how pretreatment with other drugs alters these responses. A sub-section of the Virtual Lab Pathway is the Self-Evaluation Lab; this section compares blood pressure responses to a series of drugs before and after administration of an "unknown". Your mission is to then identify the unknown. Each response (right or wrong) comes with useful feedback, and you can also click to "teaching points" to get a complete description of the educational information present in each "experiment".

You can cover a lot of material pretty fast at this site. Allow roughly 30 to 45 min, each, for the two teaching pathways, and another 30 to 45 min for the Self-Evaluation Lab. This site uses some experimental drugs with unfamiliar names; however, these drugs are described in the Drug List which can be clicked to without interrupting your study session. This site also has a "Resources" page with many links to internet sites of interest to pharmacologists or students.

Description: This site is maintained by the Johns Hopkins University and allows you to objectively assess your knowledge of pharmacology. This site offers quizzes on microbiology, pharmacology or vaccines. For pharmacology, there are seven pre-set tests with a broad range of topics that you can take in a choice of formats (multiple-choice, matching or essay). Alternatively, you can de-select the pre-set tests, and then design your own custom quiz by selecting the format and specific topics you want to cover in your test. You get to select how many questions are asked for both the pre-set tests and the self-designed tests.

This site does not provide any detailed discussion of pharmacological principles or conceptual information on the actions and uses of various drugs. The site just tests you on basic facts relating to therapeutic drug class, subclass (structural group), mechanisms of action, indications, adverse effects, side effects, drug interactions, metabolism, etc., etc.. Such information is kept in a searchable Pharmacology Database which enables the rapid generation of custom tests. Nonetheless, the facts selected seem fairly relevant, and the attentive student can learn some pharmacology while also assessing his or her knowledge base. It is possible to design a custom quiz and then test yourself on twenty multiple choice questions in less than 30 min