Academic pharmacologists: confronting new challenges in educational programs of graduate and health care professionals.

Pharmacologists belong to a special fraternity, one whose members love to study drugs, even though we may have highly individualized viewpoints about what aspect of drug action delights our intellectual curiosities. Still it is this passion to understand everything about a drug that drives our need to uncover the essence of a chemical's effect on living cells and tissues, and ultimately how it exerts its therapeutic benefits. In this sense, pharmacology is a discipline key to the health sciences in that it bridges basic and clinical endeavors, as well as between professional practices.