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We're collaborating with academia to educate tomorrow's doctors about bio-pharmaceutical development.

The rigorous curriculum of medical school is designed to give future physicians the information and skills they need to begin clinical practice. For most, clinical practice will inevitably mean prescribing a medicine or vaccine to a patient. Yet few medical students understand the drug development process or how pharmaceutical research can be applied to patient care. 

In 2010, Merck and the Yale School of Medicine collaborated to bridge this knowledge gap.

The result was a comprehensive, five-module web-based course on drug development for second-year medical students at Yale. Authored by 34 Merck Ph.D.s and medical professionals and approved by Yale faculty, the content of the course was added to the school's existing pharmacology curriculum. 

Today it is part of the Scientific Education Initiative in Merck’s Office of the Chief Medical Officer. The initiative is a program focused on working with academia to develop and share high-quality, balanced, scientific education on translational science topics.

“When industry and academia share knowledge and expertise with one another, we all learn – and we all benefit. Collaborations enable a win for patients, academic institutions and businesses,” said Michael Rosenblatt, M.D., executive vice president and chief medical officer at Merck.

The interactive course takes students through the development process of a hypothetical drug, from target identification and validation through the clinical trial, the regulatory review process and post-approval monitoring.

Since it was first introduced, the reach of the program has expanded to include schools in both the developed and developing world. The curriculum is currently being used by eight schools in the U.S. and eight outside the U.S. It has been translated into four languages – Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish and Russian.

Merck developed and launched a new online course on clinical research and design in the spring of 2012.  Working in collaboration with The Ohio State University’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), the program will be expanded with additional topics and case studies.  Currently the course is offered to four U.S. universities as well as four schools outside of the U.S.

“We are very excited to participate in this collaboration with Merck.  By providing a comprehensive introduction to the primary methodologies used in clinical research with both real-life and hypothetical illustrative case studies, we believe we can better inform our trainees about the processes that translate discovery to the bedside, and ultimately into clinical practice to influence our ability to improve health,” said Rebecca Jackson, M.D., associate dean for research in Ohio State’s College of Medicine and director of the CCTS.

"By sharing our expertise about drug discovery and clinical research, we’re helping future physicians to fill a knowledge gap and we’re helping to deepen the respect for and understanding of the roles the drug researcher and the physician play in promoting health,” said Rosenblatt.

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