Drug Information Center

Location

The lecture will meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:30 to 9:20 am in College of Pharmacy room 134-2. The required recitation sections will meet Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 1:30 to 4:20 pm. Recitation will begin in Room 32 for Monday and Friday lab groups and in Room 134-2 for the Wednesday lab group. There are weeks when recitation will meet in other locations; these exceptions will be announced during lecture and posted on Blackboard.

Faculty

Joan Stachnik, PharmD, BCPS (Coordinator)
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 413-7699; email: stachnik@uic.edu

Amy Lodolce, PharmD, BCPS (Co-Coordinator)
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 355-4049; email: aelo@uic.edu

Margaret Byun, PharmD, MBA
Office: Suite 345 CSB
Phone: (312) 355-1417; email: mbyun1@uic.edu

Michael Gabay, PharmD, JD, BCPS
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 413-3977; email: mgabay@uic.edu

Courtney Krueger, PharmD, BCPS
Office: Department of Pharmacy Practice
Phone: (312) 413-7341; Email: ceckhoff@uic.edu

Carissa Mancuso, PharmD
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 996-3769 ; Email: cmancuso@uic.edu

Mary Lynn Moody, BSPharm
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 996-2351; Email: mlmoody@uic.edu

Simon Pickard, PhD
Office: Room 287 (2^nd floor, College of Pharmacy)
Phone: (312) 413-3357; Email: pickard1@uic.edu

Maria Tanzi, PharmD
Office: B12
Phone: (312) 413-1887; email: mtanzi1@uic.edu

Patricia West-Thielke, PharmD, BCPS
Office: Clinical Sciences Building, Suite 402
Phone: 312-996-5695; Email: pwest@uic.edu

Guest Lecturers

Tony Burda, BSPharm, DABAT
Office: Illinois Poison Center
Phone: (312) 996-6156

Linda Kay, MS, PharmD
Senior Manager, Biomedical Communications
Advanced Neuromodulation Systems
E-mail: lindakay@uic.edu

Teaching Assistants
The teaching assistants for PHAR 455 are Margaret Lin and Ketsya Amboise. Handouts can be picked up from the TAs – Room 246, 2^nd floor, College of Pharmacy; handouts will only be available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings after lecture. TA office hours will be available by appointment.

Office Hours
No specific office hours for the coordinator or co-coordinator will be scheduled. Appointments can be made individually or as a group to discuss matters related to the class with the coordinator or co-coordinator as needed. The preferred method of contact to set up an appointment is via email. Email addresses are provided above under the faculty listing. For information specific to a lecture, it is best to contact the specific faculty member who provided the lecture for which you need further clarification. Scheduled office hours will be available with faculty prior to the due date of the consult; these hours will be announced once available.

Texts

Required
Dawson-Saunders B, Trapp RG. Basic & Clinical Biostatistics. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2004. The primary focus is on statistics including mathematical calculations and clinical applications. This reference is also available on-line, through the UIC Library of the Health Sciences’ Access Medicine database.

Recommended
*Malone PM, Mosdell KW, Kier KL, Stanovich JE. Drug information: a guide for pharmacists. 3^rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2006. The book provides an overview of drug information including clinical trial design and statistics.

*Lang TA, Secic M. How to report statistics in medicine. 2^nd ed. Philadelphia: American College of Physicians; 2006. A non-mathematical review of statistics and applications in clinical trials.

*Books by Malone (2^nd edition) and Lang are on reserve at the Library of the Health Sciences for room use only.

American Medical Association Manual of Style. 10^th ed. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins; 2007. A guide to rules of style for medical writing.

Exam Dates
Exam #1 – Monday, February 25^th
Covers material through Primary Literature (February 11th)

Exam #2 – Friday, April 4^th
Covers material from Clinical Trial Designs through t-tests (February 13th – March 12th)

Final Exam – Date to be determined by the Office of Academic Affairs

Comments Regarding Examinations
Exams #1 and #2 are 50 minutes in length. The final exam is 2 hours in length. Seats will be assigned to all students in a random fashion for examination purposes. Students must complete and turn in scantron sheets within the 50 minute exam duration. Faculty will not complete scantron sheets for students. Students cannot request to change the date of an exam.

Assignment Dates
Recitation assignments are due at the end of the recitation session unless otherwise noted.

The written consult is due on Thursday, April 10^th by 4:00 pm. Any consult received after 4:00 pm will be considered late (see penalties below). The Drug Information Center is open on Saturdays from 8 am to 4 pm and this day will count toward the late penalty. Consults will be returned to students approximately 2-2 ½ weeks after the due date.

Specific due dates will be given for other written assignments (Journal Club lecture assignment and the Writing Skills [Plagiarism] assignment).

You will be asked to present a journal club during your scheduled recitation during week 14 or 15 (4/14 to 4/25). Please note that preparation is required prior to the recitation.

Grading Policy
Grades are determined based on scores obtained from the recitation (lab) assignments, other written assignments, the written consult, the 3 examinations. Grades will be posted on the course website via Blackboard. Students should frequently check Blackboard for their grades and other course announcements. A traditional 10% scale will be applied for grading purposes as follows:

≥ 90% = A
80 – 89 = B
70 – 79 = C
60 – 69 = D
≤ 59 = Not a passing grade

There is no curve or rounding up of final grades in PHAR 455.

Students who disagree with a grade assigned on any assignment may submit the assignment in question to the course coordinator for reevaluation within 5 days of the date of return of the graded assignment. The entire assignment will be re-graded, and the resulting score (higher or lower) will be final.

Students will not be allowed to have assignments reevaluated at the end of the semester in order to improve a final grade.

Plagiarism
Plagiarized assignments (including the Consult assignment) will be given a grade of zero. The faculty are available to help you in understanding the concept of plagiarism and are more than happy to answer any questions you have related to this topic. An assignment related to plagiarism to further your understanding of the topic will be given. In addition, a lecture on writing skills/plagiarism will be presented in PHAR 455. Attendance at this lecture is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. Please consult the lecture schedule for the date of this lecture.

Writing Skills
The ability to convey information in a written format is an important and valuable skill. The Writing Center, on the east side of campus in Douglas Hall Rm 100, offers free tutors to aid students in developing their writing skills. The phone number for the Writing Center is 312-413-2206. Hours of operation include:

Monday: 10 am – 4 pm
Tuesday: 9 am – 5 pm
Wednesday: 9 am – 6 pm
Thursday: 9 am – 6 pm
Friday: 9 am – 2 pm

More information can be obtained by visiting the Writing Center website at: http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/writing/.

Points Available
The following is a listing of the points available in PHAR 455.

Late Assignments
All recitation assignments must be turned in by hand the day they are due, usually at the end of recitation. It will not be acceptable to email or fax your assignments to the faculty unless prearrangements have been made with the course coordinator.

Failure to turn in any assignment by 4:00 pm (or by the end of recitation as assigned) on the due date will result in loss of points: 10% of the total possible points will be deducted for each day an assignment is late, as listed below. Note this policy starts at 4:01 pm on the due date.

Following day: 10% off
2 days late: 20% off
3 days late: 30% off
4 days late: 40% off
5 days late: 50% off
6 to 9 days late: 60 to 90% off

We are aware that some factors are beyond our capability to control and that such factors could make the completion of an assignment by the due date impossible. If such a situation is applicable to you, please contact the course coordinator before the due date and your situation will be considered.

Missed Examination/Recitation
It is the student’s responsibility to contact the course coordinator no later than the day of, but prior to the start time, of the recitation or exam that the student intends to miss. It is in the best interest of the student to notify the course coordinator as soon as possible. Any absence for which a student has failed to comply with this stated policy will be considered an unexcused absence, and the student will receive a zero for that recitation or exam without the possibility of make-up. Students who comply with this policy may be granted an excused absence, with the possibility of a make-up assignment. The format and time of offering of any make-up exam or assignment will be at the discretion of the instructor and course coordinator.

Attendance
Attendance in lecture is highly encouraged and expected. Not all lectures have PowerPoint slides to be posted on blackboard; however, those that do have slides will be posted on blackboard.

Attendance in recitation is required. Students arriving more than 15 minutes late to a recitation section, leaving before the recitation section ends, or attending a different recitation without prior approval will be treated as an unexcused absence. The student will receive a zero for that recitation, without the possibility of a make-up. It is not acceptable to obtain a copy of the recitation from students who have completed it earlier in the week and attempt to turn in a completed copy at the beginning of the recitation. This will be counted as an unexcused absence and given a grade of zero. Please do not schedule appointments during the required recitation sections; assume all recitations go until 4:20 pm.

Students must attend the recitation section to which they have been assigned. For excused absences only, arrangements will be made with the course co-coordinator, Amy Lodolce (aelo@uic.edu), for the student to make up the recitation session whenever possible.

Pledge of Professionalism
The Pledge of Professionalism was designed to remind students what they should expect of each other in terms of attitudes, ethical behavior, and academic honesty. The coordinator expects that all students enrolled in PHAR 455 will use the Pledge as a guide to behavior within this course and all others. Furthermore, the course coordinator reserves the right to fail any student enrolled in PHAR 455 that demonstrates unprofessional behavior at any time. Professional behavior includes, but is not limited to, timely attendance, sustained presence, active participation, and the maintenance of an appropriate learning environment in the classroom, during recitation exercises, and all other course-related experiences.

Cell Phones and Pagers
The use of cell phones and pagers during class is not only distracting to the instructor, but also to your fellow students. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers prior to the beginning of class.

Off-campus Meetings
Students who plan to attend off-campus meetings should contact the course coordinator through an organization representative at least 4 weeks prior to the meeting. A list of the students’ names attending the meeting should be given to the course coordinator. The course coordinator will work with the organization representative to resolve how missed assignments, recitations, or exams will be handled. If this procedure is not followed there is no guarantee that a satisfactory solution will be available.

Religious Observance Statement
The faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago shall make every effort to avoid scheduling examinations or requiring that student projects be turned in or completed on religious holidays. Students who wish to observe their religious holidays shall notify the faculty member by the tenth day of the semester of the date when they will be absent unless the religious holiday is observed on or before the tenth day of the semester. In such cases, the student shall notify the faculty member at least 5 days in advance of the date when he/she will be absent. The faculty member shall make every reasonable effort to honor the request, not penalize the student for missing the class, and if an examination or project is due during the absence, give the student an exam or assignment equivalent to the one completed by those students in attendance. If the student feels aggrieved, he/she may request remedy through the campus grievance procedures.

Special Needs
To obtain academic accommodations for this course, students with disabilities should contact the Office of Disability Services and the course coordinator as soon as possible after the beginning of the semester. The student will need to contact Disability Services at 1-312-413-2183 (voice) or 1-312-413-0123 (TTY).

For more information, visit the Office of Disability Services web site at: http://www.uic.edu/depts/counselctr/disability/diswebpg.htm.

Privacy Statement
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. This impacts you from the standpoint of receiving graded assignments. In order for us to return graded assignments via your student mailboxes, we are required to have your consent. If you do not wish to have your assignments returned in this manner, you will have the option to pick up assignments from the course coordinators.

Class Schedule
The lecture and recitation schedules are attached to this syllabus. The course coordinator reserves the right to make alterations in the lecture and recitation schedules. Furthermore, the course coordinator reserves the right to alter the syllabus as needed.

PHAR 455 Lecture and Exam Schedule Spring 2008

PHAR 455 Recitation Schedule 2007

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Syllabus agreement form – PHAR 455 Drug Information and Statistics

As a student enrolled in PHAR 455, you must acknowledge receipt of this syllabus and agree to abide by its provisions.

I have read this syllabus, understand its implications, and will abide by it. I understand that the course coordinator has the right to make alterations to the class schedule as needed.

Printed name:___________________________________

Signature of student:____________________________ Date:_____________________

This form must be signed and turned in during your scheduled recitation time for semester week 1.

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