Table 2.
Major objectives in the creation of eDrug
| 1 | To improve the visibility of the PT theme across all 5 years of undergraduate medicine |
| 2 | To develop a cost-effective dynamic solution to the problem of maintaining and developing knowledge of PT horizontally within individual years and vertically across all 5 years of an integrated medical curriculum |
| 3 | To facilitate integration and coordination of PT teaching within the many other modules in the curriculum |
| 4 | To collate generic information on pharmacology, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics, and clinical toxicology |
| 5 | To reduce the factual burden (information overload) imposed by the large number of medicines mentioned throughout the course by identifying a ‘core’ list of exemplars, ‘the student formulary’ |
| 6 | To provide students and staff with clearly identified learning goals via a user-friendly web-based interactive tool |
| 7 | To provide enhanced learning and teaching opportunities for PT within existing manpower resources by giving concise information (mode of actions, indications, adverse effects) relating to the core drugs in an enjoyable user-friendly efficient manner |
| 8 | To enable users to access lecture presentations, notes and CALs relating to PT dynamically, by maintaining links to current lectures and associated CALs |
| 9 | To use established accredited databases such as BNF and search engines such as Answers.com to provide additional focused up-to-date learning material |
| 10 | To answer student queries relating to PT material via lecturers and eDrug editors (e-Tutors). This might be done via individual e-mail replies, or more efficiently by posting the reply on the year Discussion board within EEMeC, so that all users can benefit from the information |
| 11 | To design a visually attractive interface for users and editors, with simple intuitive navigation |
| 12 | To adopt the drug classification used in the BNF, the standard National Health Service formulary, to facilitate transition from undergraduate to postgraduate studies |
| 13 | To improve the safety and effectiveness with which our graduates prescribe drugs as junior doctors in a busy NHS environment. Ensure that medical graduates can continue to access eDrug during their Foundation training. |
| 14 | To sustain and enhance the system by online objective feedback from users |
PT, Pharmacology and therapeutics; CAL, computer-assisted learning; BNF, British National Formulary; EEMeC, Edinburgh Electronic Medical Curriculum.