LECOM Erie School of Pharmacy

Introduction to Pharmacy - 3.5 Credit Hours
The student will be introduced to the profession. This course will cover the history of the pharmacy profession, the patient-centered care concepts, medical terminology, the delivery of patient-centered care and the forces driving the direction of the profession. Team learning and team dynamics will be emphasized as well as communication skills.

Drug Information I and II - 4 Credit Hours
The structure of a drug information center as well as the role and functions of a drug information pharmacist will be reviewed. The students will be familiarized with the skills required to handle different types of drug information questions. Technology will be fully utilized.

Physiology and Anatomy I with lab - 3.5 Credit Hours
A study of the basic principles of human physiology and anatomy. Emphasis will be placed on the nervous and cardiovascular systems.

Introduction to Health Care Delivery - 3 Credit Hours
An overview of the basic structures and operations of the U.S. health care delivery system. Course topics will provide knowledge and insight into its historical origins; the changing roles of the components of the system; and the technical, economic, political and social forces responsible for these changes.

Pharmaceutics I - 4 Credit Hours
This course will cover and integrate applied drug-delivery principles in the design, development, manufacture and stability of safe and effective pharmaceutical dosage forms and finished drug products. Specific topics/concepts will focus on the physical, chemical and biological principles essential for understanding basic pharmaceutics, pharmaceutical dosage forms and drug delivery systems. The topics/concepts will include the design, formulation and manufacturing of various pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Introduction to Pharmaceutical Sciences - 3 Credit Hours
This course is optimally designed for first year pharmacy students to teach them basic concepts and topics about the basic chemistry, physical-chemical properties of drugs, the role and influence of acid/base theory, bioenergetics and thermodynamics, and nuclear medicine to drugs and pharmaceutical systems. The deficiency in acid/base, fluid, electrolyte and their clinical correlation will be emphasized too. This course will also integrate important concepts from the physical pharmacy areas of specialization to illustrate design and development of traditional drug-dosage forms as well as novel pharmaceutical delivery systems used currently in pharmacy practice.

Biochemistry I - 3 Credit Hours
A study of the structure function and interactions of molecules found in biological systems: amino acids, peptides and proteins, nucleotides and nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and hybrid molecules.

Pharmaceutics II - 4 Credit Hours
This course provides students with a qualitative and quantitative overview of drug disposition and the processes important to disposition, namely, absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion. It is anticipated that students will learn how to calculate various pharmacokinetic parameters that are important to the therapeutic use of drugs. Finally, by understanding and calculating the impact of various factors on drug disposition, students will develop an understanding of how therapeutic dosing may be modified.

Physiology and Anatomy II with lab - 3.5 Credit Hours
A continuation of Physiology and Anatomy I. Emphasis will be placed on the circulatory, renal, respiratory, endocrine, and gastrointestinal systems.

Immunology - 2 Credit Hours
A study of the organization, function, and clinical significance of the immune system.

Pharmaceutical Calculations - 2.5 Credit Hours
This required course will cover various aspects of pharmaceutical calculations to provide the student with an understanding of what the practice of pharmacy will require of them as practitioners when presented with patient prescriptions or medication orders.

Pharmaceutical Calculations Lab - 1 Credit Hour
This course is focused on discussing and learning to prepare various extemporaneously compounded dosage forms while fulfilling all legal requirements. In some instances, the pharmacist will not only be required to calculate patient doses, but also compound various types of prescriptions. The calculations laboratory will provide students with experience in weighing, measuring, preparing, dissolving, diluting, and other practical experiences that are necessary for dispensing and compounding. The knowledge gained in Pharmaceutics I and Pharmaceutical Calculations is essential for completing laboratory exercises.

Biochemistry II - 3 Credit Hours
The spotlight of Biochemistry II will be biosynthesis of carbohydrate, lipids, and steroids, the molecular transmission of the genetic information; the structure of chromosomes and genes; replication and transcription of DNA; protein synthesis; receptors, and signal transduction; gene's repair, mutation, recombination, and cloning. Biochemisty II will also highlight the production of major biotechnology and pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics and gene therapy.

Pharmacist Provided Care - 2 Credit Hours
Pharmacist Provided Care is designed to enhance the student’s baseline clinical skills before entering the Pharmacotherapeutics course sequence and future clinical experiences. Students will be instructed on the history and significance of pharmaceutical (pharmacist-provided) care, important principles required to gather needed information from a patient chart, assess a patient’s drug therapy and create a problem list, and develop a comprehensive pharmaceutical plan for their care. Techniques will be taught to assist the student and future pharmacist to recognize potential medication adherence problems using objective and subjective evidence of non-adherence, identify causes, and monitor to improve a patient’s adherence to a medication regimen.

Pharmacy Law and Ethics - 3 Credit Hours
This course will examine the laws, regulations and related ethical issues regarding the practice of pharmacy and the regulation and control of drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.

Microbiology with lab - 4 Credit Hours
This course is a comprehensive introduction to bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The laboratory is an integral and important part of this course, providing the basic skills needed to work with bacteria: proper use of the microscope, how to prepare stained slides, aseptic technique for transfer and inoculation of bacteria, and how to use various media to select, isolate, and characterize bacteria.

Sterile Dosage Forms with lab - 2 Credit Hours
Introduces the organization and administration of an admixture program and admixture techniques. The proper utilization of parenteral products, as well as parenteral drug compatibility literature is also considered. The lecture portion will meet approximately 15 hours/term (1.5 Credit Hours) while each student will attend 5 laboratory sessions/term (0.5 Credit Hour).

Research Methods and Pharmacoepidemiology - 3 Credit Hours
This course builds upon concepts presented in the Drug Information course sequence. Didactic lectures will add basics of evidence-based medicine. The students will then be asked to put this information into practice through evaluation of assigned primary literature research papers. Students will then be asked to discuss the assigned paper in class in a “journal club” format. Students will expand upon the concept of merely reading articles to building a literature review and/or research proposal. Pharmacoepidemiology, by drawing upon the concepts from both pharmacology and epidemiology, will deal with the study of the utilization and effects of drugs in large numbers of people.

Effective Communication in Pharmacy Practice - 2 Credit Hours
This course is competency based and is designed to provide students with an opportunity to observe, learn, and apply various professional skills that are essential for effective professional communication. Techniques to improve individual student performance will be taught during group practicing sessions.

Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience - 12 Credit Hours
The students will practice as a pharmacy extern five weeks each in a community setting and an institutional setting. They will learn details which involve the distribution of a drug from the prescription received to the safe administration of the drug to the right patient.

Clinical Pharmacokinetics - 3 Credit Hours
The course will apply the basic concepts of Biopharmaceutics/Pharmacokinetics to the clinical management of various patients’ conditions. The goal is to optimize therapy, achieve maximum efficacy while preserving safety for the patients.

Pharmacotherapeutics I through IV - 26 Credit Hours
This course will cover pathophysiology and therapeutics per organ systems. It will start with the non-prescription drugs and medical devices, dermatology and follow by the series of theses organ systems: respiratory, cardiovascular, degenerating diseases, genital urological diseases, endocrinology/gastrointestinal diseases, critical care, infectious diseases, neurology, psychiatry, oncology, and women’s health. The courses of Pharmacotherapeutics will be taught in a sequential and integrative manner to tie in the knowledge and concepts from Medicinal chemistry coupled with the Pharmacology of the drugs involved in the corresponding organ system and to the pathophysiology and therapeutic principles in clinical practice. This will enable the students to relate the knowledge from both basic sciences and clinical sciences.

Pharmacology/Medicinal Chemistry I - 5 Credit Hours
This course will introduce students to the coordinated study of the molecular, cellular, and physiologic basis of drug action, the influence of chemical and physical properties in structural activity relationships, and drug design as it relates to drug metabolism and drug action. The course will begin with general principles, and the remainder will familiarize students with various classes of drugs that act at synaptic and neuroeffector junctions and on the central nervous system. Chemistry and quantitative structural activity relationships, mechanisms of action, toxicity profiles, and pharmacokinetics associated with these drugs will be emphasized.

Alternative Medicine - 3 Credit Hours
This course covers different aspects of natural products used as pharmaceuticals., including both plant derived and microbial-derived (antibiotics) products. In addition, this course will introduce the students to other aspects of medical care as alternative medical therapies used in the US and will study the potential drug interactions, adverse effects, and usage in the clinical arena.

Pharmacology/Medicinal Chemistry II - 5 Credit Hours
A continuation of Pharmacology/Medicinal Chemistry I. This course will familiarize students with various classes of drugs used to treat cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and inflammatory disease . Drugs that act on blood and blood-forming organs will also be discussed. Mechanisms of action, toxicity profiles, chemistry and quantitative structural activity relationships, and pharmacokinetics associated with the different drugs will be emphasized.

Clinical Laboratory & Physical Assessment - 2 Credit Hours
The students will learn the basics in physical assessment and monitoring the effects of drugs in patients. The clinical laboratory component will cover the normal and abnormal laboratory values from different organ systems. This course will prepare the students for upcoming courses in pathophysiology and therapeutics.

Pharmacy Practice Management - 3 Credit Hours
Emphasis is given to the managerial aspects of pharmacy practice within the health care system. This course provides the basic financial and operational management knowledge and skills necessary for successful professional practice in any venue.

Pharmacology/Medicinal Chemistry III - 5 Credit Hours
A continuation of Pharmacology/Medicinal Chemistry II. This course will familiarize students with antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, and drugs used to treat disorders of the endocrine system. Mechanisms of action, toxicity profiles, chemistry and quantitative structural activity relationships, and the pharmacokinetics associated with the different drugs will be emphasized.

Pharmacogenomics - 3 Credit Hours
This course provides students with an understanding of the ways that inherited variations in genes affects response to drugs, and how an understanding of these variations can be used to predict response. The course will provide an overview of the principles of genetic medicine and bioinformatics, and consider ethical, legal and social issues in genomics. The impact of genetics on drug metabolism, and drug transporters will be discussed as well as the role of pharmacogenomics in drug discovery and development. Finally the role that pharmacogenomics plays in treatment of specific diseases will complete the course.

Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Assessment - 3 Credit Hours
This course will introduce the principles and tools of pharmacoeconomics and outcomes assessment that are commonly used to study the impact of patient-centered care services on the health and health care of a patient or community. The student will be familiarized with the necessary skills to perform cost effectiveness and cost benefit analyses. Case studies will be used to extend the didactic portion of the course into real life experiences for the students. The student will be given the opportunity to view this dynamic process from the varying points of view for all stakeholders engaged in making therapeutic decisions.

Patient Safety & Medication Related Errors - 2 Credit Hours
A major objective of this course is to expose pharmacy students to a background that will allow the reliable translation of the science of preventable medication errors into clinical practice. Upon completion of this course, students will have the basic knowledge to understand the science of errors and the basis of safe practices.

Capstone Course - 2 Credit Hours
This course will integrate what the student has learned across many disciplines throughout the didactic course in order to prepare them for success in APPE rotations. The course will utilize active learning in the format of case presentations, journal clubs, and topic discussions.

Graduation Research Seminar - 1 Credit Hour
Working with an assigned research mentor, the student is expected to complete a research proposal. The methodology and expectations of the proposal build upon information presented in the research methods class of first year.

Over the Counter Medications - 4 Credits Hours
This course will integrate pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, pathophysiology, and therapeutics to provide the necessary information for the pharmaceutical care management of various disease states that patients can self-treat. This includes disease assessment, treatment and product selection recommendations, patient counseling, and disease/drug therapy monitoring.

Electives
Students will choose from between three and eight electives planned by the faculty.

Fall –
Teaching Elective
Advanced Management and Communication in Pharmacy Practice Elective
Independent Research Elective
Drug Information Elective
Nuclear Pharmacy II Elective
Drugs of Abuse Elective

Spring –
Writing in Science Elective
Nuclear Pharmacy I Elective
Biopharmaceuticals Elective
Independent Research Elective

Summer –
Application of Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacogenetics in Oncology Elective
Writing in Science Elective
Toxicology Research Elective
Healthcare and Prevention Elective
Landmark Clinical Trials Elective
Geriatric Elective
Advanced Compounding Elective