PharmaCORE: Optimizing medical pharmacology education with an innovative instructional dashboard

Abstract

What was the educational challenge?

Diminishing emphasis on pharmacology education in medical schools has resulted in a concerning lack of prescribing knowledge among physician graduates. These concerns mirror our graduates’ expressed dissatisfaction with the structure and quality of pharmacology educational experiences over the past 5 years.

What was the solution?

PharmaCORE, a web-based instructional dashboard, was developed as an interactive faculty development tool to enhance integration and instruction of pharmacology content in pre-clinical curriculum at a US medical school.

How was the solution implemented?

PharmaCORE was introduced in Spring 2022 for instructors teaching pharmacology in the pre-clinical curriculum. Instructors used the dashboard to assess coverage of specific drug topics throughout the curriculum and to apply tailored, learner-centered teaching strategies to optimize learner engagement and comprehension.

What lessons were learned that are relevant to a wider global audience?

The initial assessment indicated that the dashboard was user-friendly and positively influenced instructor awareness of pharmacology content and learner-centered teaching. This faculty development approach underscores the importance of skill-based mapping and maintaining learner-centered teaching standards to address other integrated subjects and broader curricular challenges.

What are the next steps?

This study lays the foundation for the broader applicability of instructional dashboards in tracking and addressing curricular challenges across pharmacology and other science subjects. Future steps include more personalized feedback for instructors, creating a student-accessible version, and ongoing monitoring of maintenance measures like milestone exams.

Keywords:

• Pharmacology
• curriculum map
• faculty development
• teaching & learning

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Nancy Moreno, Chair of the Department of Education Innovation, and Technology, and Dr. Nadia Ismail, Vice Dean of the School of Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, for supporting the inception and implementation of this project. They would also like to thank Mr. Howard Lin, Project Manager, for his database design insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The study was reviewed and approved by Expedited procedures on 3/31/2022 by the Institutional Review Board for Human Subject Research at Baylor College of Medicine (H-50795).

Other disclosures

Chat GPT 3.5, developed by OpenAI, aided in minor sentence editing but was not involved in any other aspect of this study.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by a grant from the Department of Education, Innovation & Technology of Baylor College of Medicine, and the Huffington Foundation. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of Baylor College of Medicine or the Huffington Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Munder Zagaar

Munder Zagaar, PhD, PharmD, is Associate Professor of Foundational Sciences, Biochemistry, and Molecular pharmacology, Education Innovation, and Technology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Peter J. Boedeker

Peter J. Boedeker, PhD, is Assistant Professor, Education, Innovation, and Technology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Sherita J. Love

Sherita J. Love, PhD, is Executive Director, Center for Teaching and eLearning. Assistant Professor, Education Innovation and Technology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.