Curriculum and Assessment

Curricula

There are three curricula that trainees enrolled in pharmaceutical medicine specialty training are currently following:

Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training - August 2010
Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training - January 2007
Higher Medical Training in pharmaceutical medicine - September 2003

All trainees now starting on PMST will follow the PMST 2010 curriculum.

Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training

Doctors who entered Pharmaceutical Medicine Specialty Training (PMST) from 1st August 2007 onwards should refer to the January 2007 PMST curriculum for further information. Doctors who are entering PMST 1st August 2010 onwards should refer to the August 2010 PMST curriculum for further information.

Trainees following the August 2010 PMST curriculum are required to use a trainee ePortfolio, which contains the workplace-based assessments that they and their Educational Supervisors need to complete.

Specialty training in PMST may begin after gaining a post in pharmaceutical medicine and after completion of the Foundation Programme (F1 and F2) and two years of post-Foundation clinical training in any medical specialty, for example Core Medical Training (CMT) of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, or its equivalent in other medical specialties.

The nature of the clinical training prior to specialty training in pharmaceutical medicine must include experience of acute and continuing clinical management and care, and wide experience of prescribing and monitoring the effects of medicines.

The specialties in which this experience is gained are not critical and pharmaceutical physicians come from a wide variety of medical and surgical disciplines.

The programme of PMST consists of the specialty knowledge base, leading to the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine by examination, which must be passed prior to the award of a CCT, and practical competency-based training in an individualised (ad personam) programme centred on an approved workplace training environment.

Practical PMST comprises a modular programme in six fields of practice in pharmaceutical medicine that accompanies and / or follows acquisition of the specialty knowledge base. The six operational modules are Medicines Regulation, Clinical Pharmacology, Statistics and Data Management, Clinical Development, Healthcare Marketplace and Drug Safety Surveillance.

A seventh, generic, module in pharmaceutical medicine continues from the generic module for the medical specialties delivered during clinical training with its emphasis on individual patient care within the NHS. The generic module in pharmaceutical medicine encompasses the principles of Good Pharmaceutical Medical Practice and Interpersonal and Management Skills relevant to the ethical and professional work of a pharmaceutical physician practising outside the NHS.

Successful completion of the training programme leads to a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), the holder of which is eligible to apply for entry to the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK.

Doctors with non-EU clinical training are not eligible for entry to a UK CCT programme, including PMST. Those doctors may undertake PMST training, but on completion, they will not receive a CCT, and their entry to the GMC's Specialist Register will be determined by fulfilling the requirements of The General and Specialist Medical Practice (Education, Training and Qualifications) Order 2010. If successful, a Certificate confirming Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) will be awarded.

Higher Medical Training in pharmaceutical medicine

Only trainees who enrolled onto Higher Medical Training (HMT) before 31 July 2007 are required to follow the HMT curriculum.

The HMT programme in pharmaceutical medicine takes a minimum of 4 years, including the 2 years prior to taking the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine examination. Successful completion of the training programme leads to a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), the holder of which is eligible to apply for entry to the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK.

Assessment

Workplace-based assessments

Trainees following the August 2010 PMST curriculum are required to use the workplace-based assessment (WPBA) tools, which are available on their trainee ePortfolios. Trainees following the January 2007 PMST curriculum can also use the WPBAs. Please see below Word versions of the WPBAs to download.

Knowledge-based assessment

Trainees are eligible to sit the knowledge-based diploma examination (see below) in any year during their training programme and encouraged to do so as soon as they feel is appropriate.

There are currently three diploma examinations in pharmaceutical medicine recognised for this by the Faculty and the GMC:

Trainees can email the following contacts for further information about the exams held by the Free University of Brussels and the University of Basel:

Mrs Jellouli Bahija
Free University of Brussels
Coordinator of PHARMED courses
Building GE, CP 611
Route de Lennik, 808
B - 1070 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: 0032 2 555 6229
Fax: 0032 2 555 6230

Dr Annette Mollet
ECPM/ECLE
Head of Training & Education
ECPM, University of Basel
Institute of Pharmaceutical Medicine
Klingelbergstrasse 61
CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
Tel: 0041 61 265 7645/50
Fax: 0041 61 265 7655

Currency of examinations

Please visit this link to the GMC website for information about the currency of national examinations that count towards the award of a CCT or CESR(CP). In the case of pharmaceutical medicine, the national examination is the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine.

The Faculty's Board of Examiners has incorporated into its regulations for the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine examination (see paragraph A.44) the GMC's expectation that candidates will not normally be allowed to attempt a national examination more than six (6) times.

Candidates who have not entered the PMST programme, or trainees who are out of programme due to a career break or maternity leave for example, can sit the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine examination, but they must enter or re-enter the training programme within seven (7) years of passing the examination.

Candidates who are applying for entry onto the specialist register for pharmaceutical medicine via the CESR route are required to have passed either the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine examination, or one of the equivalent examinations run by the Free University of Brussels and the University of Basel/ECPM. Candidates who intend to apply for a CESR will not normally have attempted either the Diploma in Pharmaceutical Medicine examination or one of the equivalent examinations more than six (6) times.