PCOL801 / PCOL770
Contact for Course Information
Karen Woodfork, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, PO Box 9229
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center
Morgantown,WV 26506-9229
Phone: (304) 293-1997
E-mail: kwoodfork@hsc.wvu.edu
Course Description
Summer Medical Pharmacology is a 9-credit, online course, designed as a summer make-up course for second-year medical students and other graduate-level health professional students. It is a comprehensive pharmacology course that covers the basic principles of drug action and the drug classes/specific drugs currently used in medical practice. Content is organized into units on foundations, chemotherapy, nervous system, immune system and hematology, cardiovascular and renal systems, respiratory system, musculoskeletal system, endocrine system, reproductive system, and gastrointestinal system.
Lectures can be viewed in a self-paced format via streaming and downloadable video (Panopto/mp4) and audio (mp3). Course materials are also available in PowerPoint format. Weekly exams are given online using a secure browser and proctored via Zoom.
Most medical students (MD, DO) will register for the section of the course that is graded pass-fail (PCOL 801). In this section, the NBME Subject Exam in Pharmacology (i.e., the “shelf board”) will be used as the final exam. It may be taken at the student's home institution if that institution has an NBME-certified proctor for the administration of electronic subject exams. If this is not possible, the student must take the NBME exam at WVU or another NBME-certified location. The NBME Equated Percent Correct (EPC) score will be used as 15% of the student’s final grade; the weekly exams constitute the other 85% of the final grade. To pass the course, the student’s final grade must be 75.0% or higher.
Students in other health professions (e.g., podiatry, dentistry, pharmacy) often require a letter grade rather than a pass-fail course. These students should register for the section of the course that is graded on a standard 10-point letter grade scale (PCOL 770). Students in PCOL 770 will take a proctored WVU-written final in lieu of the NBME exam.
Prerequisites
Status as a student in a graduate health profession (e.g., medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, podiatric medicine) who has taken pharmacology, or course director’s permission.
Course Dates
Offered every summer.
Application deadline: 5/17/23
Start date: 5/22/23
End date: 6/27/23
Tuition
Tuition and fees are $6,381. The purchase of a specific textbook is not required.
Registration Information
Please email the course director (Karen Woodfork, kwoodfork@hsc.wvu.edu) to ascertain that you meet the course's prerequisites and obtain the link to register online.