Transl Clin Pharmacol.  2016 Mar;24(1):1-6. 10.12793/tcp.2016.24.1.1.

How a VOICE for clinical pharmacology turns into a RECIPE for its development

• Aronson JK

• KMID: 2383593
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12793/tcp.2016.24.1.1

Abstract

Pharmacology is the study of the actions of synthetic or semisynthetic chemicals or naturally occurring substances on molecules, cells, tissues, and living organisms, as seen in physiological and pathological systems, seeking to establish order, pattern, and sequence among them, aiming ultimately to determine the rules by which pathophysiological information can be coded into molecules, allowing prediction of both beneficial and harmful consequences. Clinical pharmacology is the application, informed by an understanding of pharmacology, of all aspects of the study and use of medicines in humans, whose practitioners, normally medically qualified, teach, do research, frame policy, and give information and advice about the actions and proper uses of medicines in humans and implement that knowledge in clinical practice. Clinical pharmacology expanded in the UK during the 1960s and 1970s and maintained a steady state during the 1980s, but thereafter started to decline. Since 2006 this decline has been halted and partly reversed through the efforts of the British Pharmacological Society, by demonstrating the need for clinical pharmacology in clinical practice, teaching, research, and policy making, and bringing that need to the attention of medical colleagues, regulators, government, and the public. Efforts continue to maintain and enhance this recovery, using the VOICE paradigm, which involves improving and maintaining the Visibility of the specialty, Outreach to advertise its attractiveness to potential trainees and creating a public image for the specialty, Integration with other disciplines, encouraging Coverage of neglected areas, and the use of Emissaries, particularly younger members of the discipline, to promote it, both within medicine and in the wider world. Fortuitously, translation of the five elements of this paradigm into Korean, and back-translation into English, with the addition of a sixth element, provides a RECIPE for the future of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.

Keyword

clinical pharmacology; development

MeSH Terms

Humans
Pharmacology
Pharmacology, Clinical*
Policy Making
Voice*

Figure

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  Figure 1. Changes in the UK in the numbers of consultant clinical pharmacologists (pink) and consultants in all other medical specialties (blue) in percentage terms since 1993; since 2006 there has been a steady increase in the numbers of consultant clinical pharmacologists, following the steady decline from 1993–2006; in the UK system a consultant is a senior hospital doctor

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  Figure 2. How the VOICE paradigm becomes a RECIPE for the future development of clinical pharmacology by translation into Korean and back-translation into English; CPT = clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (with thanks to Seonsam Na for help with the translations)

Reference

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