A Pharmacogenetics Service Experience for Pharmacy Students, Residents, and Fellows

Abstract

Objective. To utilize a comprehensive, pharmacist-led warfarin pharmacogenetics service to provide pharmacy students, residents, and fellows with clinical and research experiences involving genotypeguided therapy. Design. First-year (P1) through fourth-year (P4) pharmacy students, pharmacy residents, and pharmacy fellows participated in a newly implemented warfarin pharmacogenetics service in a hospital setting. Students, residents, and fellows provided genotype-guided dosing recommendations as part of clinical care, or analyzed samples and data collected from patients on the service for research purposes. Assessment. Students', residents', and fellows' achievement of learning objectives was assessed using a checklist based on established core competencies in pharmacogenetics. The mean competency score of the students, residents, and fellows who completed a clinical and/or research experience with the service was 97% 63%. Conclusion. A comprehensive warfarin pharmacogenetics service provided unique experiential and research opportunities for pharmacy students, residents, and fellows and sufficiently addressed a number of core competencies in pharmacogenetics.Keywords: pharmacogenetics, warfarin, pharmacy service, research INTRODUCTIONPharmacogenetics was recognized as an important component of the doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum with the 2007 revision of the standards and guidelines for the professional program of pharmacy by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).1 Curricular content considered essential includes the genetic basis for drug action, alteration of drug metabolism, and individualizing drug doses. The report from the 2007-2008 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Argus Commission identified advances in personalized medicine as one of the top challenges of academic pharmacy and posed that the pharmacy curricula must adequately address issues related to the topic. While pharmacogenetic content is included in the PharmD curriculum of most colleges, whether this content is sufficient to prepare pharmacy graduates to manage personalized therapy is questionable. 3,4 The majority of pharmacists agree that pharmacists should be capable of applying pharmacogenetic data to drug therapy decisions; however, few feel prepared to do so.5 An intensive educational effort would probably be necessary to improve pharmacists' knowledge and comfort level with pharmacogenetics, and a continuing education program alone, without hands-on experience probably would be insufficient. 6 Similarly, some pharmacy students feel that exercises involving the direct application of genetic data to drug therapy would increase their comfort level with interpreting and applying pharmacogenetic test results. 4 Participation on a clinical pharmacogenetics service would provide pharmacy students, residents, and fellows with firsthand experience with interpreting and applying genetic information to drug management. In addition, a pharmacogenetics service could serve as a platform for unique research opp...

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An Effective Approach to Teaching Pharmacogenomics in the First Year of Pharmacy Curriculum

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