The Effects of Personal Pharmacogenetic Testing on the Effects of Pharmacy Student Perceptions of Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Precision Medicine

Abstract

24Objective: To evaluate if pharmacy students' participation in personal pharmacogenetic 25 (Pgx) testing enhances their knowledge and attitude towards precision medicine (PM). 26 Methods: First-year pharmacy students were offered personalized pharmacogenetic 27 testing as a supplement to a required curricular pharmacogenomics course. Ninety-28 eight of 122 (80%) students completed pre-and post-course surveys assessing 29 knowledge and attitudes regarding PM; 73 students also volunteered for personal 30 pharmacogenetic testing of the following drug metabolizing enzymes (CYP2C19, 31 CYP2D6, UGT1A1) and pharmacodynamics-relevant proteins (interleukin (IL)-28B & 32 human lymphocyte antigen HLAB*5701). 33 Results: Using a linear mixed effects model, we observed statistically significant 34 improvements in 100% of knowledge and 70% of attitude-related questions for students 35 who decided to undergo personal pharmacogenetic testing. 36 Conclusion: Personal pharmacogenetic testing significantly enhances knowledge of 37 and attitude related to precision medicine among PharmD trainees. This study 38 demonstrates the feasibility and importance of educating future pharmacists by 39 incorporating pharmacogenetic testing into professional school curricula. 40 41

Evaluating an interactive teaching approach with personal genotyping to provide pharmacy students with a knowledge base for clinical pharmacogenetics

“…These results, revealing increased knowledge on the post-course test for intervention students, are in line with prior studies that integrated personal genotyping into graduate and/or medical/pharmacy education. [13][14][15][16][17]20,[27][28][29] As we expected, prior to exposure to course content, there was no correlation between students' knowledge and confidence for either intervention or control groups. Upon course completion, there was a significant positive correlation between knowledge and confidence among intervention students exposed to both didactic and active engagement strategies that included the clinical application of personal genotype results, whereas there was no correlation between knowledge and confidence among control students exposed only to didactic teaching strategies.…”

“…Potential solutions to overcome these barriers include creating teachable moments in pharmacogenetics education and training programs via patient-centered, hands-on learning and activities, and participatory genotyping, which allow students to practice essential real-world skills. 3,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Beyond the pharmacy curriculum, there are opportunities to create teachable moments in pharmacogenetics in Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) and practice as well, which provides the pharmacy profession a tremendous opportunity to contribute to an increase in utilization of pharmacogenetic information in practice. 3 To bridge the gap between knowledge-focused pharmacogenetic competencies and skills to apply clinical pharmacogenetics to optimize introductory course that used a traditional didactic teaching format with students assessed primarily through multiple-choice examinations.…”