Emerging Role of Epidemiologic Literacy

Health outcomes and policy in pharmay curricula among Arab countries: An evaluation of 191 academic institutions

INTRODUCTION

Health outcomes and policies is a growing areas that is needed in the healthcare culture. This study aimed to examine the availability, extent and type of teaching curricula (pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology, pharmacovigilance, patient safety) in Arab countries.

METHODS

A retrospective observational study was conducted during the period of November 2019 to January 2020. The collection strategy was performed by listing of pharmacy colleges in each country and then reviewing the institutions' websites that met the inclusion criteria. Five criteria were utilized to assess the availability of these courses: full-time mandatory, full-time elective, partial mandatory, partial elective, and not offered.

RESULTS

One hundred ninety-one academic institutions were screened during the study period. Of those, 151 (79.1%) institutions were included in the study and their curricular descriptions were retrieved from their electronic websites. Pharmacoeconomics was the most taught subject among the four subjects. It was offered in 89/151 of the colleges among Arab countries. Among these 89 colleges that offered pharmacoeconomics, 74/89 offered it as a mandatory. While, Pharmacoepidemiology was offered in 51 colleges, with 44/51 offering the subject as a mandatory, and 6 out of those 44 list it as a full-time mandatory, while 38 out of those 44 offer it as a partially mandatory. Only 22 of the colleges offered pharmacovigilance, with 14/22 offering the subject as a mandatory. Finally, there was only one institution that offers the subject of patient safety. Moreover, most of the four courses investigated are only taught in the final two years of study.

CONCLUSIONS

The study found a clear shortcoming in the teaching pharmaceutical outcomes. More efforts are needed by academic institutions to adopt and teach these subjects to ensure they meet the work needs and advanced pharmacy practice transformation.

Principles of drug literature evaluation for observational study designs

Clinical pharmacists must often interpret and use data derived from observational studies when making clinical decisions and recommendations, answering drug information questions, and educating patients about drug therapy. This is the third article in a three-part series intended to enhance clinical pharmacists' understanding of methods frequently used in such research and their application to patient care. Principles for critical evaluation of published observational studies are presented. Issues of bias and confounding that must be taken into account when assessing the data derived from observational studies are explained. Finally, examples of applications in pharmacy practice are presented.

Methods in epidemiology: observational study designs

This article is the first of a three-part series intended to enhance clinical pharmacists' understanding of methods frequently used in epidemiologic research and their applications. The basic tenets of epidemiology and uses for data derived from epidemiologic studies are given, along with a high-level overview of the differences between experimental and observational study designs. The defining characteristics of each of the observational study designs (case report or case series, ecologic, cross-sectional, cohort, case-control, nested case-control, and case-cohort) and the resultant strengths and limitations of the study designs are presented. Applications for observational studies in pharmacoepidemiology (including the case-crossover and case-time-control study designs) are discussed. Finally, points to consider when evaluating data from observational studies are addressed.

A team public health research project for first-year pharmacy students to apply content from didactic courses

OBJECTIVES

To implement and assess a first-year pharmacy student group research project that provided practical hands-on application and reinforced the curricula of concurrent didactic courses.

DESIGN

Groups of 6 to 7 students chose a public health topic based on the Healthy People 2010 Priority Areas and created a survey instrument. Faculty facilitated mock institutional review board (IRB) review sessions which provided teams with ongoing feedback and refinement recommendations before each team administered their survey instrument to a predefined population. Data analysis, formal written reports, and oral presentations were presented to peers and project faculty members.

ASSESSMENT

Teams complied with the requirements of the mock IRB, effectively applied basic research principles learned in class, collected survey data, performed inferential statistical analyses on the data, , and presented their project findings. Two-hundred six of 210 students (98%) reported feeling satisfied with both the results of their project and the accomplishments of their team.

CONCLUSIONS

Teams applied a varied skill set including primary literature evaluation, basic research principles, statistics, public speaking, and peer collaboration in conducting a public health research project. First-year pharmacy students may benefit from participation in a collaborative research project that provides hands-on application of material being taught in didactic courses.

Pharmacoepidemiology education in US colleges and schools of pharmacy

OBJECTIVE

To examine the type and extent of pharmacoepidemiology education offered by US colleges and schools of pharmacy.

METHODS

An electronic Web-survey was sent to all 89 US colleges and schools of pharmacy between October 2005 and January 2006 to examine the type and extent of pharmacoepidemiology education offered to professional (PharmD) and graduate (MS/PhD) students.

RESULTS

The response rate was 100%. Of the 89 schools surveyed, 69 (78%) provided pharmacoepidemiology education to their professional students. A mean of 119 (+/-60) PharmD students per college/school per year received some pharmacoepidemiology education (range 1-60 classroom hours; median 10 hours). Thirty-five schools (39%) provided education to a mean of 6 (+/-5) graduate students (range 2-135 classroom hours; median 15 hours).

CONCLUSIONS

A majority of US colleges and schools of pharmacy offer some pharmacoepidemiology education in their curriculum. However, the topics offered by each school and number of classroom hours varied at both the professional and graduate level.