Instructional Model to Teach Clinically Relevant Medicinal Chemistry

The relevance of medicinal chemistry to pharmacy practice has been questioned by many pharmacy educators as more emphasis has been placed on linking clinical knowledge and practice to pharmacy student educational outcomes. Faculty teaching in medicinal chemistry and other biomedical and pharmaceutical science courses have embraced this challenge. Various teaching methods and approaches within medicinal chemistry that emphasize application of this knowledge have been sought to improve the usefulness of this scientific discipline to the future careers of students. The newly revised ACPE guidelines and standards have reemphasized the role of the sciences in the curriculum. With this mandate, it is essential that all science faculty members adjust the way they teach to meet the new desired outcomes for pharmacy graduates. This manuscript describes an instructional model for teaching medicinal chemistry explicitly designed to meet these outcomes. A process of collaboration between experienced pharmacy faculty scholars was used to derive this approach. Pedagogy for cognitive and affective learning was incorporated. A case study using a representative drug class is presented to illustrate this model.