Training and development of the next generation of medical pharmacology educators
At many schools the senior pharmacologists teach medical pharmacology.  Most modern day departments have recruited junior faculty with no formal training in pharmacology and with little or no experience relating to the medical aspects of the discipline.  As senior faculty retire there is concern about who will assume responsibility for teaching and whether or not important clinical elements of the discipline will continue to be emphasized. 

Merging or elimination of pharmacology departments
A number of traditional pharmacology departments have been merged with other basic science departments or, in some instances, eliminated.  The impact on medical pharmacology teaching and learning was thought by the discussion group to be uncertain but important to determine. 

Impact of centralized, integrated, organ-based curriculum on the control of pharmacology content by pharmacology faculty
Many schools have established an integrated organ-based strategy for medical education in which much of pharmacology is distributed piecemeal throughout the curriculum.  The result is that pharmacology is often not recognized as a distinct discipline or is given less than adequate time by students.  Comparisons between curricular types vis a vis pharmacology was thought by the discussion group to be worth further investigation. 

Re-exposure of medical students to the basic science of pharmacology during their clinical training
Re-exposure of medical students to the basic principles of pharmacology, and to important details of drug action and their adverse effects, was thought by the discussion group to be a worthwhile goal in the clinical training of medical students.  Precisely how to ensure such exposure without promoting a formal didactic course was uncertain but worth investigating further. 

There was general agreement by the discussion group that future IAMSE sessions should be devoted to one or more of these topics and that the sessions could be enhanced if they were interdisciplinary and included both basic science and clinical science educators.