Curriculum for pharmacology in pharmacy institutions in India: opportunities and challenges

Medicine and Pharmacy Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice regarding Artificial Intelligence Programs: Jordan and West Bank of Palestine

Background

Artificial intelligence (AI) programs generate responses to input text, showcasing their innovative capabilities in education and demonstrating various potential benefits, particularly in the field of medical education. The current knowledge of health profession students about AI programs has still not been assessed in Jordan and the West Bank of Palestine (WBP).

Aim

This study aimed to assess students' awareness and practice of AI programs in medicine and pharmacy in Jordan and the WBP.

Methods

This study was in the form of an observational, cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire was electronically distributed among students of medicine and pharmacy at An-Najah National University (WBP), Al-Isra University (Jordan), and Al-Balqa Applied University (Jordan). The questionnaire consisted of three main categories: sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, practice of AI programs, and perceptions of AI programs, including ChatGPT.

Results

A total of 321 students responded to the distributed questionnaire, and 261 participants (81.3%) stated that they had heard about AI programs. In addition, 135 participants had used AI programs before (42.1%), while less than half the participants used them in their university studies (44.2%): for drug information (44.5%), homework (38.9%), and writing research articles (39.3%). There was significantly (48.3%, P<0.005) more conviction in the use of AI programs for writing research articles among pharmacy students from Palestine compared to Jordan. Lastly, there was significantly more (53.8%, P<0.05) AI program use among medicine students than pharmacy students.

Conclusion

While most medicine and pharmacy students had heard about AI programs, only a small proportion of the participants had used them in their medical study. In addition, attitudes and practice related to AI programs in their education differs between medicine and pharmacy students and between WBP and Jordan.

Contribution of pharmacy education to pharmaceutical research and development: critical insights from educators

AIMS

This article examines the outputs of pharmaceutical education with the development of the pharmacy profession and how that affects pharmaceutical innovation. It also discusses different models of collaboration between the academic and pharmaceutical industry in order to achieve a healthy collaboration between the stakeholders.

METHODS

The perspective, experiences and insights of educators from various backgrounds, origin and educational levels were sought regarding the role of pharmacy education in providing pharmaceutical research and development workforce.

RESULTS

Many countries around the world are currently undertaking major reforms in pharmacy education due to the changing landscape of health and healthcare delivery. These reforms must be accompanied by robust systems to assure that the quality of educational structures, processes and outcomes will produce competent pharmacy graduates in the future. It is also considered imperative that pharmacy academic institutions should establish collaboration with the drug development units, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies for sustainability and positive research outcomes.

CONCLUSION

Shortcomings in pharmacy curricula need to be addressed and the authors have proposed the 'TARGET' approach for the development of integrated pharmacy curriculum to substantially contribute to pharmaceutical research and development.

Nanotechnology Inclusion in Pharmaceutical Sciences Education in Portugal

Objective. To analyze the inclusion of nanotechnology in the curricula of Integrated Master's in Pharmaceutical Sciences programs in Portugal. Methods. Information regarding curricula (general notice and curricular unit description, objectives and syllabus) from national institutions was collected from their official websites or requested by e-mail, and analyzed for the occurrence of nanotechnology and related terms. A nanotechnology inclusion in curriculum (NIC) index was developed and used to rank each institution. Results. All institutions with available data (eight out of nine) offered nanotechnology in their curricula. Both basic and applied nanotechnology-related education were offered to students but mostly from a theoretical perspective. The NIC index provided a standardized tool for comparing the institutions' programs and highlighted differences according to the relative importance of the presence of nanotechnology and related terms in curricula. Conclusion. Portuguese institutions offering integrated master's programs in pharmaceutical sciences are including nanotechnology in their curricula. However, its implementation across all institutions remains weak and requires further strengthening to meet the requirements of this emerging field in health care practice.