Overview
The Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics is responsible for the lecturing of all pharmacology study units at the University of Malta and provides services to five faculties: the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Social Well Being and Faculty of Science. The Department co-ordinates fifty six (56) different study-units to over 700 students on an annual basis. It is also responsible for training final year MD students to sit for the local implementation of the Prescribing Skills Assessment, which is organised by the General Medical Council UK and the British Pharmacological Society. Through its teaching approach, our Department, embraces the principles of transformative education and training. Research
The main research activities of the Department focus on the pharmacology of novel lung cancer therapeutics, drugs used in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and epilepsy with a special interest in chiral, pharmacokinetic, molecular and cellular aspects. The Medicines Use Research Group within the Department conducts research related to the safe and effective use of medicines in a clinical setting. Recently, the Department has set up a new research group: Lung Cancer Research Malta, LCRM. The Department collaborates closely with the Departments of Medicine, Neurology and Paediatrics at Mater Dei Hospital and the Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association both in research activities as well as in the organization of academic conferences. Research collaborations also exist with the Centre of Molecular Medicine and Biobanking, the Department of Applied Biomedical Sciences, the Department of Pathology and the Faculty of Social Wellbeing, University of Malta. On an international level, the department collaborates on research activities in the area of lung diseases, with the Cancer Research Centre, Marseille, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences at the i3S research institute in Porto, and with the University of Nottingham. In 2018, the Department was designated, as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Professionals Education and Research at the University of Malta works to support the WHO Regional Office for Europe on the Human Resources for Health Programme. The key objective of the Centre is to support WHO in its efforts towards achieving a sustainable health workforce by optimizing the performance, quality and impact of health workers by transforming education and training, which further builds on the Tallin Charter. The work of the Centre is in line with Resolution WHA66 Transforming Health Workforce Education in support of Universal Health Coverage. In 2022, the Department was redesignated as WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Professionals Education and Research. Taught and research courses
The Department offers research degrees at Masters and Doctoral level in Molecular Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. In addition, it offers two taught courses; a Bachelor in Pharmacology (Hons) and a Masters in Pharmacotoxicology since October 2021. To date 10 students have graduated from this new BSc in Pharmacology and another 37 students are following this course. Five students have graduated from the MSc in Pharmacotoxicology and another 9 students are presently following this course.
