Part IV. Listening

Exercise 14:

Listen to the tape http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bosxbO-hw9c and:

1. Try to tell in Russian the main idea of the text;

2. What new information have you learnt from honorary associate professor Louis Roller?

3. Can you explain to your groupmates the difference between Biopharmaceutics, Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics?

4. What is a therapeutic range?

5. Can you explain what happens to the medicine when it is swallowed by a patient?

Part V. Self-reading

Exercise 15: Work with text according to the following algorithm:

1. Read the title of the text and tell how you understand it?

2. Try to guess what this text is going to be about.

3. Look through the text and underline the informative words and phrases.

4. Read the text and find the words and word-combinations with the following meanings: 1) the official power to make legal decisions and judgments; 2) a physician or a surgeon; 3) to make up and give out medicine according to a doctor's prescription (usually at the chemist’s).

5. Read and divide it into logical parts. Think of title to each of them.

6. Look through the text once again and compose the plan of the text.

7. Make a structural and semantic scheme of the text according to the following points:

1. The aim of the text

2. The context elements: main elements and secondary elements

8. Ask your groupmates some questions according to the text.

9. Prepare an annotation of this text.

The english prescription

A prescription (℞) is a health-care program fulfilled by a physician or other medical doctors in the form of instructions that contain the plan of care for an individual patient. Prescriptions are handwritten on preprinted prescription forms that identify the document as a prescription, the name and address of the prescribing provider and any other legal requirement such as a registration number.

℞ is a symbol meaning "prescription". It originated in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation of the Late Latin verb recipe, the imperative form of recipere, "to take" or "take thus". Literally, the Latin word recipe means simply "Take …" and medieval prescriptions invariably began with the command to "take" certain materials and compound them in specified ways. Today, when a medical practitioner writes a prescription beginning with "℞", he or she is completing the command.

Both pharmacists and prescribers are regulated professions in most jurisdictions. A prescription as a communications mechanism between them is also regulated and is a legal document.

Regulations may define what constitutes a prescription, the contents and format of the prescription and how prescriptions are handled and stored by the pharmacist.

Some prescriptions will specify whether and how many "repeats" or "refills" are allowed; that is whether the patient may obtain more of the same medication without getting a new prescription from the medical practitioner.

When filled by a pharmacist, he may write some additional information right on the prescription, such as the actual manufacturer of the drug and the date the medication was dispensed. Legislation may also require the pharmacist sign the prescription.

When filled by the pharmacist, prescriptions are typically assigned a "prescription number" that is written right on the prescription. The prescription number has the practical purpose of identifying the prescription later on while filed. The prescription number is also put on the label on the dispensed medication. The patient may be required to reference the prescription number for refills and drug insurance claims. There may also be a legal requirement for prescription numbers for subsequent identification purposes.

As a legal document, some jurisdictions may require the archiving of the original paper prescription in the pharmacy. Often the patient cannot take the original prescription with them. Some jurisdictions may give patients a copy. The retention period varies but can be as long as 10 years. Once the retention period has passed, privacy legislation may dictate what can be done with the original paper prescription. Legislation may also dictate what happens to the prescriptions if the pharmacy closes or is sold.