Hello everyone!
I have a few thoughts/topics that I wanted to post, but didn't want to make it too text-heavy (a little break from reading lots of text, phew), so here they are below in a numbered list:
1. This is related to the herbal medicines topic we just finished -- I always think about the striking difference between the United States and other countries in the types of medications used to treat different health conditions, mainly pills versus herbs. Having grown up in a household that speaks Chinese, it's also really interesting to see how there are certain words for health conditions that don't exactly translate (linguistically and as a defined health problem). Do any of you speak a different language and notice this happening?
From this topic I learned that people rely on case reports and word-of-the-mouth to determine unofficially the efficacy of the herbal, and was surprised to see the astounding lack of data on these herbals that are used probably regularly by many people. What's another herbal that we didn't talk about in class that you know a lot of people use, even though there's not a lot of studies on it?
2. I'm still so surprised that early researchers were able to synthesize new compounds or analogues without using the technology that we have now such as NMR and x-ray crystallography. If this were a movie, I wonder what someone from the past would say if he/she saw the technology that we have now. If you could go back in time and take a machine with you, what would you take and why?
3. It's amazing to see the work that Elion and other researchers accomplished. I always feel like there has been so much research done already, yet of course there are new medications coming out all the time. I also learned about how each new medication gets approved because it should have some sort of advantage to it.
Would enjoy hearing your thoughts on these topics!
Hello!
ReplyDeleteBeing one who enjoys reading and learning about history, the history of drug discovery is something that hits home in both interest and profession. The history of drug discovery is one that is filled with many knowledgeable and passionate individuals. These individuals were innovators that influenced the world in many ways. Coming into this course my objective was to learn what types of actions these individuals took and what thought processes were taken. To this point in the course we’ve barely scratched the surface about how much effort and work was put into making these drugs even a possibility, let alone a reality.
Some of the topics that we have covered in class so far have put into perspective what other options exist to patients besides the normal standard of care. These options can be both effective or ineffective and safe or harmful for the patient. Learning about how much information exists about these products and the ease in which is it accessed, gives us as health care professionals insight as to what the patient is thinking of and seeing while trying to purchase some of these products. In reality we have to understand that we cannot necessarily stop some of these products from reaching the patients hands. Since this is the case we have to try to actively listen and educate the patients about the use of these products.
My goal for this course has somewhat changed from my initial objective. I know that I will not be able to learn everything there is about drug discovery or alternative medicine. So my goal now is to have the tools to do so, at the end of the course. Questions that I always ask myself are how much more are we able to discover? Or how would we have done things differently if put in the same situation?