Pharmacy Ethics

Data

Official data in SubjectManager for the following academic year: 2024-2025

Topic

The aim of the course is to help students gain sensitivity to the ethical issues raised by Pharmacy profession. During the course students will get acquainted with the most basic ethical standards of Pharmacy profession, and also with the ethical principles governing the pharmacist-patient and the pharmacist-physician relationship. In addition, students will acquire knowledge about the most relevant ethical and methodological considerations regarding clinical drug trials, and also about the international regulation of medical research involving human subjects. These pieces of knowledge together with the case study discussions taking place during the course will enable the students to use sensitive and sophisticated considerations when making professional decisions that have ethical implications.

Lectures

Practices

Seminars

• 1. Introduction - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 2. The role of ethics in Pharmacy profession - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 3. The most basic ethical standards of Pharmacy profession - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 4. The most basic ethical standards of Pharmacy profession 2. - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 5. The principle of informed consent in modern health-care - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 6. The ethical framework of pharmacist-patient relationship - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 7. Ethical issues in clinical drug trials - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 8. Ethical issues in clinical drug trials 2. - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 9. Placebo effect - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 10. Some ethical issues raised by pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 11. Summarizing discussion - Szolcsányi Tibor
• 12. Test - Szolcsányi Tibor

Reading material

Obligatory literature

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Literature developed by the Department

Additional materials: Neptun MeetStreet, MS Teams

Notes

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Recommended literature

Robert Veatch and Amy Haddad (eds.): Case Studies in Pharmacy Ethics, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, New York, 2008

Conditions for acceptance of the semester

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Mid-term exams

Written test taking place in the last class. To improve the grade, the test can be repeated two times in the first two weeks of the exam period. Oral exam is also an option for that purpose.

Making up for missed classes

According to the Code of Studies and Examinations

Exam topics/questions

1. What is the relation between the ethical and the technical aspects of Pharmacy profession? What do you know about consequentialist and about deontological ethics?

2. What is the best interest standard in healthcare profession? What is the role of utilitarianism and of pluralist consequentialism in medicine?

3. What is the Declaration of Geneva, and what are the most fundamental ethical principles of healthcare profession? How are these principles applied in Pharmacy?

4. What do you know about the principle of autonomy, and about medical informed consent?

5. What is the ‘cooperative’ model of the patient-provider relationship, and how the widespread adoption of this model has affected Pharmacy profession?

6. What are the most basic methodological standards of clinical drug trials? Why are those standards important also from an ethical viewpoint? What are the required phases of clinical drug trials?

7. What is the placebo effect? What are the most relevant ethical considerations about the use of placebo control groups?

8. What do you know about the Nuremberg Code, and about the Declaration of Helsinki? What are the most important ethical requirements regarding human studies?

9. What is true of the relation between the methodological and the ethical considerations in medical research?

Examiners

Instructor / tutor of practices and seminars

• Szolcsányi Tibor