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Education

Welcome to the homepage of the IUPHAR Education Section (IUPHAR-Ed). Medicines play a fundamental role in delivery better health to populations across the globe. These benefits can only continue if we are able to produce knowledgeable researchers who can develop new medicines and healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills to prescribe and monitor their use in patient populations. Given that pharmacological science is one of the most rapidly moving areas of research delivering these goals in academia and industry poses a considerable challenge.

IUPHAR-Ed is a dynamic global community of educators in basic, clinical and translational fields of pharmacology.  We have recently introduced new initiatives to actively promote access to educational materials, collaboratively develop new resources, discuss matters related to pharmacology education and more.

As stipulated in our statutes, the objectives of the Section shall be to:

  • foster, promote, encourage, develop and support innovative teaching, learning and assessment of basic, clinical and translational pharmacology to higher education pharmacology students and wider audiences,
  • promote global communication and cooperation between educators/ teachers and other interest groups representing pharmacology and related disciplines,
  • create forums to present and exchange ideas related to pharmacology education,
  • cooperate or associate, at the discretion of the Section, with relevant international, national and other authorities and bodies,
  • be proactive in the development of early-careers educators in pharmacology,
  • contribute to the development of sound drug policies globally via means of promoting appropriate education and training in pharmacology,
  • contribute to global public awareness and engagement on pharmacological issues promotion of appropriate education and training in pharmacology,
  • collaborate with IUPHAR and other IUPHAR sections and committees to develop programs to address the goals listed above.

History in brief…

In 1998 the IUPHAR Committee on Teaching was formally accepted as a separate section of IUPHAR known as the IUPHAR Teaching Section. Much of the drive for this development had come from Professor Bevyn Jarrott (Monash, Australia) who was also chairman of the Section during its first crucial 4 years. During this time the section ran a very well attended workshop in Bellagio (July 1998), contributed to the Clinical IUPHAR meeting in Florence (July 2000) and to meetings in Caracas and Taiwan. The Section obtained a grant from the International Council for Science (ICSU) to develop translations of computer-based learning materials. At the 2002 meeting of IUPHAR in San Francisco, USA.

Prof Jarrot completed his term and Prof Ian Hughes (Leeds, UK) followed up as new chair. During his term from 2002 until 2006 a lot of effort was invested in building education networks and into the development and provision of e-learning materials to countries with poorer access. In addition materials were translated into several languages to enhance accessibility of electronic materials to learners.

At the IUPHAR meeting in Beijing, China 2006 Prof Joan Lakoski (Pittsburg, USA) was elected chair 2006 – 2010. During her term the Section introduced the Early Educator Awards in Basic, Clinical and Translational Pharmacology, with a strong drive to promote pharmacology teaching amongst the younger generation. A framework was developed for the further development of collaborative projects between pharmacology educators globally.

Most recently the members voted to change the official name to the IUPHAR Education Section (IUPHAR-Ed) during the Section General Assembly held in July 2010 in conjunction with WorldPharma2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prof Tiaan Brink (North-West University, South Africa) was elected new chair, driving further the vision to promote international collaboration via the establishment of a web-based platform for communication, exchange of ideas and information and for sharing of educational materials.