Blogging About Pharmacology: Pharmacology Corner

For those interested in pharmacology there’s a interesting blog on the subject over at ‘Pharmacology Corner‘. The ‘About‘ section tells us that the blog is by Flavio Guzmán, an Argentinian physician lecturing in pharmacology. The blog is self-hosted and in my experience of navigating the blog, it was for me slightly slow in moving between pages. There are also frequent pop-ups asking the reader to subscribe to the blog which further slowed down the navigation. These things aside however, the blog has a nice design. The design is simple and aesthetic with a central white pane containing the articles and the surrounding background in yellowish grey contrasting distinctively with the eyes being particularly drawn to the central diagram of a synapse with alpha receptors highlighted. There are also some very colourful diagrams in the articles which contribute effectively to the overall design. There are links to exam topics and animations in the header section. On the right hand side of the central pane there is also a pharmacology blogroll. Articles are indexed according to categories including pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics on the right side of the central pane facilitating navigation. If those categories don’t appeal to the reader, then they must navigate backwards through the blog. While I may have overlooked something, the only means of navigating backwards I could see was to click on the links to articles sited beneath the older posts heading at the bottom of the screen. Indeed at the time of writing four such articles were linked to in this manner. Clicking on the bottom link led to an article on aspirin pharmacokinetics. However I couldn’t see an obvious way to move backwards from this article and needed therefore to depend on the category index to reach other articles. This seemed to indicate that there were only a few articles.  Nevertheless by clicking on one of the categories – in this case antihypertensives – a group of articles were displayed some of which dated back as far as 2009. This meant in effect that the backwards navigation (at the bottom of the screen) wasn’t revealing all of the articles – in my attempts I could only reach back as far as 2010. For this reason, the category index looked to me to be the best way to navigate the blog.

Turning to the content the articles were I thought well presented. Take as an example an article on differences between tricyclic and SNRI mechanism of action. As well as a detailed description of the mechanisms of action of both classes of drugs there are lists of drugs and also a memory aid in the form of a mind-map. The exam sections of the blog reveal that it is exam orientated and these features make sense in that context. There are also references for further reading and links to related articles which make these posts a useful starting point for further study. There is also a link to a facebook page at the bottom of the screen. Returning to the results in the antidepressants section, there are also links to videos and powerpoint presentations providing additional multimedia options for study. For me, the blog had more of a feel of being an encyclopedia with presentation of predominantly factual information which can be accessed using multiple approaches. Maybe this is a bloglopedia for want of a better neologism. The site is well presented and there is enough material and references to other sources for this to be a useful resource for those with an interest in pharmacology.

Index: An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.