Education in clinical pharmacology at the Rijeka School of Medicine, Croatia

Objective: Irrational drug prescribing is a global problem that exists both in developed and developing countries. Education is the key to improved effectiveness and safety in drug therapy. Development of clinical pharmacology (CP) as an independent discipline at the Rijeka School of Medicine has been slow and unsatisfactory. It was taken only as a part of some postgraduate courses. In the 1995/1996 academic year clinical pharmacology was offered for the first time to sixth year medical students as a non-mandatory subject. The purpose of this study was to emphasize the importance of education in clinical pharmacology at the Rijeka School of Medicine.