What This Site Is
Introduction to Medical Pharmacology is a free, structured pharmacology curriculum designed for second-year medical students. Each chapter covers a major drug class, with content modules, visual summaries, and 18-question practice sets.
The site is organized around the same sequence a second-year student encounters in a standard medical school pharmacology course: autonomic pharmacology, cardiovascular drugs, CNS agents, anti-infectives, and more. Every chapter is self-contained and can be used independently or as part of a systematic review.
There are no advertisements, no subscriptions, and no paywalls. All content is freely available.
The Question Format
Each chapter's question set contains 18 questions divided into three zones. Drug Classification questions (6 per chapter) test vocabulary and categorical knowledge. Core Pharmacology questions (8 per chapter) test mechanism understanding, requiring one reasoning step from the clinical frame to the pharmacological explanation. Clinical Correlations questions (4 per chapter) present brief patient vignettes.
Companion Resource
This site, Introduction to Medical Pharmacology, is a companion to the recently developed Medical Pharmacology reference site, a pharmacology resource written in depth and offering not only comprehensive chapter content but also over 18,000 challenging learning questions. The classic Medical Pharmacology site continues to be available and has accumulated over 7.5 million visits since its launch. The nursing pharmacology and anesthesia legacy sites remain available.
About the Author
Michael A. Gordon, Ph.D.
- Doctorate Ph.D. in Pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), 1976
- Graduate M.Sc. in Biochemistry (Neurochemistry), University of London, 1972; Research Fellowship in Neurophysiology, University of Pisa / National Research Council of Italy, 1971–1972
- Faculty Associate Professor of Pharmacology (retired), University of Kansas Medical Center, Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, 1982–2006; Assistant Professor and Section Head, University of South Dakota School of Medicine, 1978–1982
- Teaching Course Director, Medical Pharmacology (USD, 1979–1982); CNS Unit Chairman, Medical Pharmacology Course (KUMC, 1983–1997); graduate and professional courses in pharmacology, molecular pharmacology, and nurse anesthesia pharmacology spanning more than 25 years
- Research 40+ peer-reviewed publications in pharmacology, neurochemistry, immunopharmacology, and biomedical imaging; co-editor, Board Review Book in Pharmacology: ACE The Boards (1996)
- Online Developer and sole author of Pharmacology2000.com since 2000.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or feedback are welcome at michael4449@gmail.com.
If you find an error in a question or content module, please include the chapter name and module number in your message.