RE: post-ACoP: How to train future pharmacometricians

Rob I think what you indicate is perhaps more formal than what I am thinking. > across institutions - how is this vetted if one wants to provide an > "accredited" Ph.D. degree in this area - so how are the various > contributions recognized across institutions as being appropriate and > sufficient to contribute to the Ph.D. from any given institution that > is participating). There are already curricula established that could > be used to show the core need for training across multiple sites (see > the Metrum Institute curriculum - perhaps Marc can comment on this > further). The above sounds like a training programme. A PhD is about a student learning about research and problem solving in an environment that maximises their ability to discover answers/solutions. It is not about training someone up for a job somewhere. It happens that PhD students who are trained in pharmacometrics will generally get quite a broad range of experiences and knowledge of current tools. However, we are training thinking players for the future who are quite capable of learning new methods on the fly and not technicians for the present. What I hear in this discussion is more of a course taught, perhaps a Masters type, programme whereby a student could tick off the necessary components to attain the title of pharmacometrician. I don't know the attrition rates in academia in Australasia, but I imagine that we have as much difficulty either in setting up a position which is principally pharmacometrics (due to available funding) or attracting staff of the right background. Without faculty we get no PhD students and no thinking players for the future... So, for me there are essentially three different types of solutions: 1) Industry & academia grow their own pharmacometricians by taking on someone in an allied field and training them up in house (or via external courses) and then run the risk of losing them after a substantial investment. 2) A teaching programme is set up specifically to train pharmacometrics (e.g. a Masters programme of some sort). 3) More faculty become available at Universities who will take on PhD students and then train the next generation of players. I believe (1) happens now and for me (3) is the solution for the future. I believe the criterion to determine the health of the discipline is the total number of young faculty in pharmacometrics across the world. They say (at least Stephen Pinker does) that a language is officially dead when less than 6000 children speak it... Steve -- Professor Stephen Duffull Chair of Clinical Pharmacy School of Pharmacy University of Otago PO Box 913 Dunedin New Zealand E: [email protected] P: +64 3 479 5044 F: +64 3 479 7034 Design software: www.winpopt.com