Generally, medical school is divided into two major components: pre-clinical and clinical rotation sections. Each of these are two years long, though there can be minor differences from school to school.
The pre-clinical block focuses heavily on science and clinical skills, and while most are done through didactic lectures, some schools employ problem-based learning PBL or organize courses based on organ systems rather than subject. This part of the medical school requirement is similar to taking upper-level courses in undergrad, albeit at an accelerated pace. Residency committees commonly use it to evaluate candidates, meaning it has a large impact on what type of medical specialty you can later compete in.
In your third M3 and fourth M4 year, you will be on clinical rotations, meaning you will spend several weeks at a time in a hospital or other clinic setting, observing and learning from the physicians there.
M3 often consists of core rotations near and at your school, giving you a solid foundation in the most common fields that people pursuing a career in medicine go into.
M4 is very similar, though you will have more freedom in choosing the field in which you would like to do rotations. What happens after medical school? Medications are expensive, and in the Asian and African continents, where many have the problem of affordability the debate is to see if the medication could be used even after the expiry date without losing the efficacy.
Most of drug expiration dates information is from the study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years.
Hence, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. The expiration date is the final day that the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of a medication. Drug expiration dates exist on most medication labels, including prescription, over-the-counter OTC and dietary herbal supplements.
Proper storage of medications may help to extend their potency. The bathroom and medicine cabinet are not ideal places to store medications due to heat and humidity. Similarly, medications should not be left in a hot car. Medications remain most stable in dry, cool spaces away from light. Keep the prescription bottle caps tightly closed and always keep medications out of reach of children and pets. An independent organization could also do testing similar to that done by the FDA extension program or data from the extension program could be applied to properly stored medications 1.
The United States' Center for Drug Evaluation and Research officially recommends that drugs past their expiration date be disposed. It has been argued that this practice is wasteful, since consumers and medical facilities are encouraged to purchase fresh medication to replace their expired products, also resulting in additional profits for pharmaceutical firms.
Updated: August 13, , it turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does.
Since a law was passed in , drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug.
Medical authorities state that expired medicine is safe to take, even those that expired years ago. It's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.
Solid dosage forms, such as tablets and capsules, appear to be most stable past their expiration date. Drugs that exist in solution or as a reconstituted suspension, and that require refrigeration such as amoxicillin suspension , may not have the required potency if used when outdated. And how long is a prescription good for?
This is a dilemma many people face in some way or another. A column published in Psychopharmacology Today offers some advice. It turns out that the expiration date on a drug does stand for something, but probably not what you think it does.
Since a law was passed in , drug manufacturers are required to stamp an expiration date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug. Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years.
So, the expiration date doesn't really indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use. Medical authorities state if expired medicine is safe to take, even those that expired years ago. A rare exception to this may be tetracycline, but the report on this is controversial among researchers. It's true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency still remains even a decade after the expiration date.
Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years. Is the expiration date a marketing ploy by drug manufacturers, to keep you restocking your medicine cabinet and their pockets regularly? You can look at it that way.
Or you can also look at it this way: The expiration dates are very conservative to ensure you get everything you paid for. And, really, if a drug manufacturer had to do expiration-date testing for longer periods it would slow their ability to bring you new and improved formulations. The next time you face the drug expiration date dilemma , consider what you've learned here.
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