Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Biomedical Multimedia Unit

Pharmacokinetics Tutorial

The Pharmacokinetics Tutorial allows students to investigate variables that are important in fundamental pharmacokinetic principles.

A cornerstone of the program is a simple simulator. Rather than being told about the relationships between key pharmacokinetic principles or rote learning formulae and routinely applying them, students are able to construct and simulate the relationships between variables using the simulator. Students are able to vary the principle pharmacokinetic parameters of Dose, Volume of Distribution and Clearance and see the impact this has on the plasma concentration of a drug over time. Then, students are asked to respond to targeted questions based on their interpretation of the graphs of plasma concentration.

A number of additional strategies are employed to engage students in the learning process which include the use of a case study, analogies, self-test questions, and other calculation and interactive tasks.

The tutorial concludes with a comparison of first-order and zero-order kinetics and the relationship between rate of elimination, plasma concentration and half-life.

Curriculum Usage

The Pharmacokinetics Tutorial is used in semester 2 of the medical curriculum, in second-year Science and in the Nursing Masters program.

Project Screen Grabs

Click on the thumbnail to view a larger image.

Pharmacokinetics Title Screen   The Pharmacokinetics package cover.
     
Introductory case study   This screen shows the introduction to the case study titled "An Evening at the Pub". This real-life example is used to engage students.
   
Case study showing car accident  

The evening ends with a minor car accident.
   
Interactive task to determine blood alcohol content  

In this screen the student uses an interactive task to determine blood alcohol levels.

     
Interactive graphing tool  

This screen shows an interactive graphing tool. Students use this exercise to examine how varying doses of a drug effect the plasma concentration profile.
     
Analogies and questions used to challenge students   This screen is an example of how analogies and questions are used to challenge students about key concepts.

Credits

Developed by the Biomedical Multimedia Unit in association with the Department of Pharmacology, The University of Melbourne.

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