Kathryn Wheeler

A six month, double blind, crossover controlled trial of bezafibrate was conducted in 14 children with familial hypercholesterolaemia all of whom had a strong family history of early coronary heart disease. The bezafibrate was given twice daily in a dose of 10 to 20 mg/kg/day. The mean plasma total cholesterol concentration on bezafibrate was 22% lower than during the period on placebo and there was a moderate rise in high density lipoprotein cholesterol. Bezafibrate may be a useful adjunct to treatment in these children.

We report 10 cases of hypercalcaemia associated with hypophosphataemia in the first two weeks of life in extremely low birthweight infants (birthweight less than 1000 g). At the time of diagnosis, the infants were fed mainly with expressed breast milk but they had also received intravenous nutrition. After treatment with additional phosphate plasma calcium concentrations returned to normal. There was a high incidence of rickets of prematurity in these infants.

Continuous quality improvement of the professional curriculum can present as a series of complex problems to solve. Schools and colleges of pharmacy would benefit from a structured framework to approach complex problem-solving while engaging faculty and students throughout the process. Design thinking is a framework that promotes creative problem-solving while using techniques that make ambiguity and failure more comfortable during the iterative process. In this commentary, we describe how we applied the design thinking process to revise our professional didactic curriculum, concluding with a new plan of study approved by the faculty. We explain what we believe that our key drivers of success were the main challenges that we faced in each of the 5 phases of design thinking and what we did to overcome these challenges. Overall, design thinking led to a successful curricular revision that allowed transparency, established trust among participants, and democratized the lines of communication. As we move into the revised curriculum's implementation, we anticipate some resistance as course coordinators and instructors develop courses incorporating the Curriculum and Curricular Assessment Committee vision of the designed curriculum. Developing a recurring process to maintain alignment between the intended, designed, and delivered curriculum is a necessary next step. This should allow earlier identification and quicker resolution of curricular concerns through a shorter and smaller scale design thinking process.