Implementing clinical pharmacogenomics in the classroom: student pharmacist impressions of an educational intervention including personal genotyping

Pharmacogenomics provides a personalized approach to pharmacotherapy by using genetic information to guide drug dosing and selection; however, pharmacogenomic testing has not been fully implemented in clinical practice. A lack of pharmacogenomic-focused coursework in pharmacy education may be contributing to its low adoption into patient care. With extensive pharmacotherapy training and accessibility to patients, pharmacists are ideally equipped to drive clinical pharmacogenomics. This study aims to assess an innovative pharmacogenomic teaching method and elucidate its impact on students' perceptions regarding pharmacogenomics. Student pharmacists (N=222) participated in a 15-week educational intervention including pharmacogenomic presentation materials, patient case scenarios, and personal genotyping with 23andMe. Students completed a pre- and post- intervention survey to evaluate their attitudes and self-efficacy towards clinical pharmacogenomics. Responses were analyzed with McNemar's test and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. In the post-survey, 36% of students in the paired subset agreed they would recommend personal genotyping for a patient compared to 19% pre-intervention (p=0.0032). Students were significantly more confident in applying pharmacogenomics to manage patients’ medications post- intervention, and more students believed that personal genomics will likely play an important role in their future career (p=0.0072). An educational intervention improved student pharmacists' attitudes and confidence regarding pharmacogenomics in the clinical setting.Doctor of Pharmac