The Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics is responsible for the teaching of all pharmacology study units at the University of Malta and provides services to the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Social Well Being and Faculty of Science. The Department co-ordinates over 20 different study-units to over 500 students on an annual basis. In addition, it provides stand-alone study units in Pharmacotoxicology and Medication safety and Effectiveness Research methods, the latter being offered in collaboration with the University of Helsinki, Finland. It is also responsible for training final year MD students to sit for the local implementation of the Prescribing Skills Assessment, which is held in conjunction with the General Medical Council UK and the British Pharmacological Society. Through its teaching approach, our Department, embraces the principles of transformative education and training.
Our Department co-ordinates the UK Prescribing Safety Assessment Exam for final year medical students in conjunction with The British Pharmacological Society and MSC Assessment. This allows all students to demonstrate their competencies in relation to the safe and effective use of medicines.
The principle research activities of the department focus on the pharmacology of drugs used in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and epilepsy with a special interest in chiral, pharmacokinetic, molecular and cellular aspects. Recently, the department has also extended its research portfolio to include the molecular pharmacology of lung cancer management. Research is also carried out on Maltese medical history. It also offers research degrees at Masters and Doctoral level in Molecular Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
The Medicines Use Research Group within the Department conducts research related to the safe and effective use of medicines in a clinical setting. The Department collaborates closely with the Departments of Medicine, Neurology and Paediatrics at Mater Dei Hospital and the Caritas Malta Epilepsy Association both in research activities as well as in the organization of academic conferences. Research collaborations also exist with the Department of Pathology, University of Malta.
The Department also works closely with the Medicines Authority in Malta and members of the department have been appointed as experts on the Pharmacogenomics and Pharmacokinetics working parties of the European Medicines Agency. On the international level, the Department has collaborated with the University of Minnesota in organising an International Pharmacokinetics School. It also has strong research links with Queen’s University of Belfast, N. Ireland, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham and the Virtual Epilepsy Academy of the International League against Epilepsy Members of the Department have also participated in several internationally funded projects such as FP7 DESIRE: Development and Epilepsy - Strategies for Innovative Research to improve diagnosis, prevention and treatment in children with difficult to treat Epilepsy, Erasmus+ ICIT IT-Based international diploma and professional certificates in clinical toxicology and the EU Life Long Learning Academic Network (SPAN) on Prevention Medicine.
In April 2018, the department was designated World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Health Professionals Education