Longitudinal curriculum design shows promise to improve pharmacogenomics education in an observational study

Introduction

Longitudinal curriculum has been suggested for improving pharmacogenomics education, however the outcome of such curriculum design has yet to be reported. Here we evaluated the effectiveness of a simple longitudinal curriculum consisting of didactic lecturing and laboratory-based teaching in two sequential semesters towards pharmacogenomics education.

Methods

Four pharmacogenomics lectures were offered to professional year 3 (PY3) pharmacy students during the fall semester. During the following spring semester, students participated in two laboratories followed by an implementation project. Knowledge attainment was assessed through an exam following the fall lectures. Students' perception about their clinical pharmacogenomics skills were collected by electronic questionnaire before, immediately after, and 3 months after the fall lectures and the spring laboratories. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA followed by pairwise t-test.

Results

The average exam score in Fall 2023 was 79 % (54 %–96 %). Students' perception in a 1–5 Likert scale improved from 1.35 to 3.63 immediately following the lectures (p < 0.0001) but dropped to 1.94 after three months (p < 0.0001). In contrast, after two laboratories in Spring 2024, students' perception improved from 1.94 to 3.67 immediately following the laboratories (p < 0.0001), and importantly, remained high at 3.55 three months later (p = 0.36).

Conclusions

Combination of didactic lecturing and laboratory-based teaching offered in two sequential semesters is conducive to maintaining student's positive perception about their clinical pharmacogenomics skills. Our curriculum design is simple to implement and has the potential to improve long-term retention of pharmacogenomics knowledge.