DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACY

PhD QUALIFYING EXAMINATION

(for graduate students who matriculate in AY2004/5 Semester 1 and after)

The PhD Qualifying Examination (QE) is compulsory for all students who wish to be admitted into the PhD programme.

Purpose and Philosophy

The aims of the Graduate Program in Pharmacy are to produce students with the following characteristics:

• To have expert knowledge and technical competency in a specialized area of research;
• To be able to critically analyze a research problem, propose a hypothesis and suggest approaches to investigate the hypothesis;
• To be able to critically analyze research findings, to apply appropriate methodologies and statistical analyses, to provide an objective summary of results and a proposal for future investigations;
• To be able to write and present their research findings in a concise and objective manner;
• To be able to instruct and mentor junior students;
• To have a safety mindset;
• To maintain integrity and honesty in their research endeavor; and
• To have the ability to perform across discipline boundaries.

Objectives

The PhD Qualifying Examination has 2 objectives:

• To ensure that the PhD candidate has sufficient fundamental knowledge in research methodology, statistics and his/her discipline of study

• To ensure that the PhD candidate has the ability to design, write and orally defend a research project proposal

Format

The PhD Qualifying Examination consists of 2 parts:

Part I

This part consists of a written examination to assess the candidate's fundamental knowledge in research methodology, statistics and his/her discipline of study.

1. The written examination consists of 2 sections: A and B.

- Section A tests on research methodology and statistics while Section B on a specific discipline of study.

- The written examination consists of MCQs and/or short questions contained within one 2-hour paper.

- The candidate has to attempt all questions in Section A (60 min) and 3 out of 10 questions in Section B (60 min).

- A list of topics and reference books are provided (Appendix I). 1 question is set for each pharmacy and biomedical topic.

2. The written examination is conducted twice a year, in May and November. Registration for this examination will be open in February and August respectively.

3. Each student will be allowed 2 attempts on the written examination.

Part II

This part consists of a written report and oral defence of the candidate's research project proposal. It assesses the candidate's ability to design, write and orally defend his/her research project proposal.

1. The student can only apply for Part II of the QE within 12 to 24 months of his/her candidature. He/she should also satisfy all of the following conditions before applying for Part II of the QE:

(i) Has completed 2 Level 5000 modules with an average grade of B.

Candidates sitting for the examination of the module(s) may be granted provisional acceptance.

(ii) Has a publication accepted by a SCI indexed journal or has an abstract accepted by an international conference for presentation.

For candidates who have not satisfied this condition, the department is willing to consider their applications based on a letter of appeal/support from their supervisors. In the letter, the supervisor has to comment clearly on the candidate's spoken and written English, performance in research up to date and the potential to complete the PhD program successfully.

(iii) Has passed Part I of the QE.

2. Registration for Part II of the QE is open twice a year. The tentative schedule is shown in the following table.

3. The 2 examiners and the supervisor(s) will form the PhD Thesis Committee of the candidate.

4. The formats of the presentation and written report are provided in Appendix II.

Policy

• Part I and Part II of the QE are each conducted 2 times in each academic year.

• At the point of admission into the Pharmacy graduate programme, the student will not be designated as MSc or PhD students.

• Students who pass the QE will be known as PhD students.

• Students who do not wish to take the QE or fail to pass the QE by the end of 24 months of their candidature will be considered as MSc students.

• A student is allowed 2 attempts on Part I of the QE and 1 attempt on Part II of the QE.

Appendix I

Topics and reference books

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

• Research process
• Research design
• Types of research
• Research ethics
• Protection of intellectual property
• Identifying the research question
• Writing of research proposal
• Presentation of research results

Reference book: Experimental designs, 2 nd edition, W G Cochran and G M Cox, John Wiley & Sons (1992)

STATISTICS

• Statistical measurements
  - Summary measure of data
  - Types of variables
  - Summarising data
  - Exploratory data analysis

• Distribution and estimation
  - Normal distribution
  - Poisson distribution
  - Gaussian distribution
  - Z score
  - Sampling distribution of means

• Approaches to statistical inferences
  - Hypothesis testing
  - Types of errors
  - Power
  - Parameter estimation and confidence intervals

• Sample size
• ANOVA
• Correlation and regression analysis
• Survival or time-to-event analysis

Reference book: Pharmaceutical statistics: Practical and clinical applications, 3 rd edition, S Bolton, Marcel Dekker (1997)

PHARMACY AND BIOMEDICAL TOPICS

• Principles in physical pharmacy: solubility, acids and bases, pK a, buffers, distribution phenomenon, diffusion, dissolution, interfacial phenomenon, colloidal systems

Reference book: Physical Pharmacy: physical chemical principles in the pharmaceutical sciences, 4 th edition, A Martin, Lea & Febiger (1993)

• Drug delivery systems for oral, topical, parenteral, inhalation and rectal administration

Reference book: Pharmaceutics: the science of dosage form design, 2 nd edition, M E Aulton, Churchill Livingstone (2001)

• Pharmaceutical microbiology: morphology of microorganisms, control of microbial growth, evaluation of antimicrobial activity, principles of sterilization

Reference books: Microbiology: an introduction, 7 th edition, G J Tortora, B R Funke and C L Case, Addison Wesley (2001)

Pharmaceutics: the science of dosage form design, 2 nd edition, M E Aulton, Churchill Livingstone (2001)

Achieving sterility in medical and pharmaceutical products, N A Halls, Marcel Dekker (1994)

• IUPAC nomenclature of organic and heterocyclic compounds

Principles in medicinal chemistry: bioisosterism and isosterism, prodrugs, metabolic fate of functional groups, electronic effects of substituent groups and their quantification, quantitative structure activity relationship, stereoisomerism, drug target binding forces

Reference books: Burger¡¯s medicinal chemistry and drug discovery, volume 1: principles and practice, 5 th edition, M E Wolff, Wiley (1997)

• Spectroscopic and chromatographic techniques: principles of the techniques and their application in drug research (including IR, UV, 1H NMR, MS and HPLC)

Reference books: Pharmaceutical analysis: a textbook for pharmacy students and pharmaceutical chemists, D G Watson, Churchill Livingstone (1999)

Organic spectroscopy, 3 rd edition, W Kemp, Macmillan (1991)

• Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic properties of drugs
  - Definitions of pharmacokinetics, clinical pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and biopharmaceutics
  - Basic concepts relating to drug disposition (including absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion)
  - Basic pharmacokinetic principles
  - Pharmacokinetic models: difference between compartmental and physiologic models
  - Concepts essential to clinical pharmacokinetics: volume of distribution, clearance, elimination rate constant, half-life, steady state concentration
  - Application of pharmacokinetic principles to therapeutic drug monitoring: principles of TDM, rationale behind choosing drugs for TDM, impact of changes in half-lives, volumes of distribution on TDM

Reference book: Clinical pharmacokinetics: concepts and applications, 3 rd edition, M Rowland and T Tozer, Williams & Wilkins (1994)

• Pharmaceutical calculation and OTC products for cough, cold, allergy and skin care
• Clinical pharmacy and therapeutics: cardiac arrhythmias, systemic hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, peptic ulcer disease, diabetes mellitus

Reference books: Pharmacy review, L Shargel, John Wiley & Sons (1989)

Comprehensive pharmacy review, A H Mutnick, Harwal Publishing (1994)

• Basic immunology: the structure and functions of immune organs and cells, innate and adaptive immunity

Basic pharmacology: receptor concept and drug action, drug metabolism

Protein structures: basic concept in the first, secondary and tertiary order structures of proteins and relevance to function

Reference books: Immunology: a short course, 4 th edition, E Benjamini et al, John Wiley & Sons (2000)

Basic and clinical pharmacology, 8 th edition, B G Katzung, Lange (2001)

Introduction to protein science: architecture, function and genomics, A M Lesk, Oxford University Press (2004)

• Analysis of drugs in biological fluids: basic techniques used and validation methods

Reference book: Handbook of drug analysis: applications in forensic and clinical laboratories, R H Liu et al, American Chemical Society (1997)

Appendix II

Format of the written report

The following are general guidelines for the format of the report. Suggested guidelines for the page length of each section are indicated in paresthesis.

Presentation:

• Entire report should be 25-30 pages in length, excluding tables, figures and schemes.
• Report should be presented with 1.5 line spacing, Times New Roman, font size 12.
• Report should be printed on both sides of A4 paper.

Components of report:

1. Specific aims
List the broad, long-term objectives and the goal(s) of the specific research proposed (test a stated hypothesis, create a novel design, solve a specific problem, challenge an existing paradigm, address a critical barrier to progress in the field, develop new technology).
(Not more than 1 page)

2. Literature review
Summarize the background leading to the present application.
Critically evaluate existing knowledge.
(5-6 pages)

3. Significance of project
Specifically identify the gaps in existing knowledge that the project is intended to fill.
State concisely the importance of the research by relating the specific aims to the broad long term objectives.
If the aims of the application are achieved, state how scientific knowledge will be advanced.
Describe the impact to the field.
(1-2 pages)

4. Preliminary studies
Describe the experiments that had been carried up to date.
Provide concise experimental details.
Describe how the data was collected, analyzed and interpreted.
Critically discuss your results in the light of the objectives of your proposal.
(15-17 pages, excluding tables, figures and schemes)

5. Future work
Relate how the proposed work to be undertaken will complement the existing work done. Describe its role in fulfilling the (original) research objectives.  Provide a tentative sequence for the proposed work.
Briefly describe the methodology to be employed.
Provide a timeline for the project.

If a change is required in the light of the preliminary results, describe the nature and extent of change and how it impacts your original objectives. Restate your objectives if necessary. Provide a rationale and a tentative sequence for the proposed work.
Briefly describe the methodology to be employed.
Provide a timeline for the project.
(3-4 pages)

6. Acknowledgements
Candidate must acknowledge contributions from undergraduate students (FYP, UROPS), and other contributors to his submitted report.
(Not more than 1 page)

7. Literature cited
List all references. References should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals enclosed in parentheses, in the order in which they are cited in the text, e.g. (1), (2,3), (4-6), etc.
Each reference must include the name of all authors, article title, book or journal title, volume number, page numbers and year of publication.

Format for references should follow the style indicated in the journal Pharmaceutical Research (An Official Journal of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists). Please visit the link to the Instructions for Authors for more details.
(This section is not included in page count.)

8. Oral examination
The student will be requested to make an oral presentation (30 min) on his topic of research, following which he/she will be questioned by two examiners for the next (maximum) 30 minutes.

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Current as of 25th July 2008