Entry requirements

The general rules laid down by the Curriculum Committee of the Faculty of Pharmacy apply (see programme curriculum).

Aims

The course aims to give the student the knowledge of mathematics and statistics needed to independently analyse questions relating mainly to pharmaceuticals. The course is intended to reflect the applications with which pharmacists may come into contact in the practice of their profession, e.g. mathematical and statistical processing of measurement data with the aid of calculating programs (e.g. Excel), graphic representation of measurement data and mathematical modelling.

Content

Contents of the mathematics section (2 points):

Differential calculus; explicit and implicit derivation, the chain rule as an aid, e.g. in derivation of more complicated functions, use of differentials, logarithmic derivation, parametric derivation, functions of several variables, partial derivation.

Integral calculus; some special types of integration, e.g those applicable to chemical reaction kinetics, variable exchange, partial integration.

Variable-separable differential equations.

Linear regression; mathematical background, conversion of nonlinear to linear relationships, applications.

Contents of the statistics section (3 points):

The statistics section aims to give the student an understanding of basic statistical terms and concepts. This means that the student shall be able to understand and to some extent evaluate the statistics that commonly appear in medical and pharmaceutical literature and perform simple statistical tests with the aid of reference literature.

Specific topics:

Fundamental terms and concepts

Study design

Median and dispersion measures, including confidence interval

Probability distributions, i.e. variability concepts (normal, t,binomial and c2 distributions).

Regression and correlation (simple linear regression and orientation on multiple linear regression)

Tests for parallel groups (parametric and nonparametric)

Tests for paired observations (parametric and nonparametric)

One-way ANOVA

The group exercise and demonstration part comprises work with calculation and mathematical and statistical programs.

Instruction

The tuition comprises lectures, group exercises, seminars and demonstrations.

Compulsory parts of the course: Attendance at group exercises and demonstrations is compulsory.

Assessment

The student is required to carry out a number of assignments concerning different mathematical and statistical problems met by pharmacists in their everyday work and submit written solutions. The final examination is in written form. Examinations in compulsory parts of the course may be re-sat in connection with the next course at the earliest and then only if there is a vacancy. Students are required to pass the relevant examinations in the respective parts of the course(examination codes).