History

MiCAL was originally developed in 2000 to address the common training needs of NHS medicines information staff, in particular pre-registration pharmacy graduates. Since then, MiCAL has evolved into a web based training tool aimed at any user requiring the knowledge and skills to effectively respond to questions about medicines.

MiCAL is a training tool that supports self-directed learning and can be used to gain new knowledge and skills or refresh old ones. Some of its advantages include:

Users can transfer their user login from one registered organisation to another (for the same version).

Users can get hands-on training on MiDatabank through completion of the case scenarios.

Users have the option of an interactive training tool that tests learner understanding.

The content is applicable to anyone involved in answering medicines related questions.

The full programme does not have to be worked through beginning to end. MiCAL is better suited to learners who have identified their training needs and want to address gaps in their knowledge/skills base.

Contributors

Over the course of MiCAL's development, contribution to its content has come from UKMi, SPS, specialist medicines information staff, specialist clinical pharmacists, Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) affiliated membership bodies, and through feedback from users (both learners and trainers).

Technical and website support/content is provided by CoAcS Ltd.

The Success

MiCAL is a useful resource for all medicines information services in the NHS. There are over 200 organisations registered with MiCAL and over 1500 individual learners.

The MiCAL development team have also contributed MiCAL based material to the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE).