STRUCTURALLY BASED THERAPEUTIC EVALUATION - A THERAPEUTIC AND PRACTICAL APPROACH TO TEACHING MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY

In keeping with the mandate for more critical thinking, problem solvin g, and relevance in basic pharmaceutical science courses, the Structur ally Based Therapeutic Evaluation (SBTE) of drugs is a new concept tha t has been introduced in the medicinal chemistry courses at Creighton University. Like the medicinal chemistry case study, this concept emph asizes the relevance of chemistry to the practice of pharmacy, and dem ands its inclusion in the therapeutic decision making crucial to the p rovision of pharmaceutical care. The unique feature of the SBTE approa ch is the inclusion of seven therapeutic criteria that must be address ed when translating chemical and structural understanding into predict ed pharmacological action and therapeutic potential. These criteria, w hich are the same ones used to evaluate drug therapy decisions in clin ical case studies, include:drug history/drug response, patient complia nce, current medical history (CMH), past medical history (PMH), side e ffects, biopharmaceutics, and pharmacodynamics. Students are required to apply the SBTE approach to solve patient-related therapeutic proble ms on homework assignments, in voluntary recitation periods, and on ex aminations, SBTEs are summarized for each class of drugs and the stude nts are encouraged to find additional criteria and to supplement exist ing SBTE criteria based on their understanding of concepts from other courses in the curriculum, The practical impact of medicinal chemistry on the practice of pharmacy becomes increasingly apparent with every new SBTE.