Questionnaire Survey to Pharmacists after a Workshop on the Chemical Structural Formula of Drugs

Abstract

Recently, it has been reported that only a small number of sixth-year students who had undergone a long-term pre-clinical training in the fifth year found organic chemistry useful. To explain this, we hypothesized that pharmacists are unable to utilize the knowledge of organic chemistry to solve clinical problems. With the aim of addressing this problem, we conducted a workshop consisting of a series of lectures and exercises on structural similarity, solubility, absorption, and metabolism of drugs based on a chemical structural formula. Then, we administered a questionnaire survey to 253 participants who had participated in our workshop. The questionnaire comprised 17 questions, and free descriptions were analyzed using text mining. Results showed that, although about 45% of the participants confirmed the chemical structural formula described in the medical package insert, and about 22% of the participants had the opportunity to check the metabolites described in the drug interview form, more than 90% of the participants were interested in the workshop contents. Thus, pharmacists may want to learn how the process of utilizing the chemical structural formula can be applied to their clinical practice.