The main careers in CPT are:
• Academic: senior lecturer/ reader/ professor in a medical school with an honorary NHS consultant contract. Most CPT academics have a subspecialty interest such as hypertension, oncology, epilepsy, gastroenterology, paediatrics etc
• NHS consultant. There are a few NHS consultant jobs in pure CPT, including ones in Poisons Units. Many more trained clinical pharmacologists have NHS consultant jobs in other specialties such as general acute medicine or cardiovascular medicine. CPT expertise is often put to use in drug and therapeutics committees, research ethics committees and formulary committees. Such a consultant typically spends about half their time in supervision of acute medical admissions, responsibility for medical inpatients and running outpatient clinics.
• Pharmaceutical industry.
• Drug regulation (eg MHRA).
Training in CPT is defined in the specialty training curriculum (see below), and is usually combined with training as a general physician. The required competencies build on core training including acute medicine level 1, achieved in specialty training years 1 and 2. Core training and acute medicine competences build on foundation training. Key aspects include training in undertaking and interpreting clinical investigations including clinical trials; optimising the therapeutic use of drugs; detection and analysis of adverse drug effects; contribution to medicines evaluation; and management of poisoning. Trainees will usually develop a clinical specialty interest (eg cardiovascular risk management, toxicology).
Individuals interested in an academic career should consider applying for an academic clinical fellowship (ACF), particularly one that provides exposure to CPT. Some such trainees will use their academic time to prepare an application for funding for a research fellowship (eg from MRC, Wellcome, BHF) leading to a PhD and subsequently apply for an academic clinical lecturer appointment. This will provide a well defined academic career path. CPT provides one of the few academic disciplines that combines naturally with retaining a wide generalist interest in therapeutics across the span of general medicine.
Careers outside academia or the NHS can also be intellectually stimulating and rewarding and the pharmaceutical industry and the drug regulatory bodies have a particular interest in recruiting trained clinical pharmacologists.
Updated Jan 07