Development of an Undergraduate Pharmacogenomics Curriculum

Abstract

Pharmacogenomic biomarkers are becoming increasingly common in medicine and drug development. However, there is a genuine concern that the healthcare workforce will be ill-equipped to translate this information to clinical practice. As a result, a major effort is underway to educate future healthcare professionals on pharmacogenomics. This paper describes the development of a year-long course that aims to instill the fundamental concepts of this rapidly growing field into the minds of undergraduate students. This course offers the advantage of exposing students to the concepts of pharmacogenomics prior to their enrollment in PhD, PharmD or MD/DO graduate programs.

KEYWORDS::

• education
• pharmacogenetics
• pharmacogenomics
• training
• undergraduate

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The authors of the paper are involved in the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Shenandoah University, Bernard J Dunn School of Pharmacy joint Pharmacogenomics Program Initiative. The Merck Foundation provided funding for a portion of the early development of this program. The authors would like to thank the program‘s students and faculty who have provided critical comments to the development of the curriculum. The genotyping study was approved by The George Washington University Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB# 120626). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Notes

^*Adapted from Core Competencies in Genetics Essential for All Health-Care Professionals National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG), January 2001 [102].

Additional information

Funding

The authors of the paper are involved in the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Shenandoah University, Bernard J Dunn School of Pharmacy joint Pharmacogenomics Program Initiative. The Merck Foundation provided funding for a portion of the early development of this program. The authors would like to thank the program‘s students and faculty who have provided critical comments to the development of the curriculum. The genotyping study was approved by The George Washington University Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB# 120626). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.