Learning adverse drug effects from judicial precedents.

Abstract

In order to help students to become familiar with the official web site on drug safety information in Japan, a short course, in which they actively learn the adverse effects of drugs, has been introduced in our pharmacology curriculum. Each student was allotted a personal computer that was connected to the internet, and was informed of the URL (www.pharmasys.gr.jp/homepage.html) where they were able to search for pertinent essential information on drugs and to report adverse events to the official concerned organization. There were three students to a group, each of which was provided with a judicial precedent. Each judicial case record was deliberately truncated after the section where the physician committed misuse of drugs, so that the students had freedom to imagine the rest of the story. Each group was asked to summarize the case, to speculate on the prognosis and to point out the inappropriate use of drugs. Most groups predicted the outcome optimistically at first, but as they scrutinized the cases, they became aware of serious mistakes that the physicians had committed in patient care. The results suggest that the internet is a powerful tool for gleaning drug information and reporting adverse effects. Judicial precedents provide an excellent teaching material for giving students an incentive to access web sites that are essential for healthcare professionals.