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FORUM
Student-Faculty Collaboration Yields Pharmacology TextWhen a group of five first-year HMS students completed David Golan's pharmacology course in 2000, they approached him for help on a project they wanted to undertake.
Ramy Arnaout, Armen Tashjian, David Golan, Ehrin Armstrong, and April Armstrong collaborated on the new text Principles of Pharmacology. A celebration marking its publication was held at HMS on May 24. (Photo by Graham Ramsay) "'We'd like to write a book with you,' they said. From a group of first-year students, I thought that was incredible," reported Golan, a professor of medicine and of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology. "Writing a book had occurred to me, but I had been ambivalent about the idea of mounting a new text because of the magnitude of the task. But a student-faculty book would offer a unique and valuable perspective. These were very committed students, and I thought that if we were ever going to turn our course into a book, this opportunity could present the energetic group of writers and editors that we would need." The book, which grew from a collaboration eventually involving 43 HMS students and 39 HMS faculty, has just been published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. The publication of the 52-chapter text, Principles of Pharmacology: The Pathophysiologic Basis of Drug Therapy, was celebrated at a reception at HMS on May 24, hosted by the Program in Medical Education and the Academy at HMS. The faculty editors, Golan and Armen Tashjian, HMS professor emeritus of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, worked with student editors Ehrin Armstrong, Joshua Galanter, April Wang Armstrong, Ramy Arnaout, and Harris Rose on every aspect of the book's planning, design, writing, and editing. "The faculty editors were immensely supportive of the students, empowering us to write clearly and effectively," said April Armstrong, now a resident in dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Each decision was reached through an extensive discussion among the faculty and student editors. Although this was sometimes laborious, the outcome is a book that truly reflects the needs and voices of medical students, as well as the expertise of the faculty." The group worked to produce a text that could aid in shifting the teaching of pharmacology from lecture-based memorization to an integrative conceptual approach, a longtime goal of Golan's. The book explains drug action in the context of human physiology, biochemistry, and pathophysiology. "This book could foster several goals of the current HMS medical education reform initiative, such as a closer connection between basic biomedical science and the clinical applications of basic science," Golan said. "By providing a more integrated approach, tying different disciplines together, the books bridges these two areas of medical education." "My hope is that our book will foster a revolution in the teaching of pharmacology and that, by using our book in courses, other medical schools will see the value of adopting a more conceptual approach," said Golan, who has been the pharmacology course director at HMS since 1989. Several prominent medical schools are planning to recommend the text in their curricula, and the book is under consideration at several other medical schools in the U.S. and abroad, Golan added. He and his colleagues are currently working to develop an online curriculum based on the text for the HMS pharmacology course. --Leah Gourley |
