Abstract
Pharmacists are considered among the most accessible healthcare workers in fundamental positions to implement new clinical initiatives, such as pharmacogenomics services. The scope of pharmacogenomics in improving health outcomes and the quality of health care is well-known. Implementation of such initiatives requires adequate knowledge, perception, and positive attitudes among pharmacists. A study was conducted on pharmacy students at King Saud University in Riyadh to analyze their attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions concerning pharmacogenomics to explore the feasibility of establishing full-time pharmacogenomics instruction and services. A cross-sectional study was carried out in one of the significant pharmacy schools of Saudi Arabia, using a simple questionnaire-based survey in pharmacy students pursuing Bpharm and PharmD courses to obtain preliminary information about pharmacogenomics among the surveyed population. The study’s secondary objective was to determine the perceived belief about pharmacogenomics implementation in clinical practice. Out of the total of 552 participants, 41.8% correctly defined pharmacogenomics and 81.3% understood that genetic change could lead to adverse reactions. More than half of the participants agreed that the FDA recommends pharmacogenomics testing for certain drugs. The knowledge about a year of use of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice was found to be very low; only 15.2% could correctly answer. Only 60% of students agreed on pharmacogenomics testing for selecting the therapy with the most negligible adverse effects. Due to the limited knowledge about and understanding of pharmacogenomics, there is a lack of interest among pharmacy students in implementing pharmacogenomics testing in clinical practice. Our study highlights the need for improving pharmacy students’ knowledge about pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics so that the implementation of pharmacogenomics testing in clinical practice will become easier. There is a need to introduce an up-to-date curriculum for pharmacy courses other pharmacogenomics-based health education programs in Saudi Arabia.
Highlights
Pharmacogenomics deals with the application of genomics in pharmacology to study and analyze the outcome of genetic variations in responses to drug treatments [1]
With the advent of pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, and the completion of the Human Genome Project, anticipation is high that genetic information would radically improve medicine, that side effects would be more predictable, and that patients could be screened for likely drug responses [4]
31.7% (175 of 552) of pharmacy students had completed coursework related to pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics
Summary
Pharmacogenomics deals with the application of genomics in pharmacology to study and analyze the outcome of genetic variations in responses to drug treatments [1]. With the advent of pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, and the completion of the Human Genome Project, anticipation is high that genetic information would radically improve medicine, that side effects would be more predictable, and that patients could be screened for likely drug responses [4]. As per the pharmacogenomics report, so far, more than 350 drugs have been incorporated in the Food and Drug Administration’s (US-FDA) repository of drugs labelled prior to administration [5]. These mostly include drugs having a thin therapeutic index and that are potentially toxic, e.g., anti-neoplastic, anti-coagulant, and anticonvulsant dugs [6,7,8,9]. The present study was designed to investigate the knowledge and attitudes regarding pharmacogenomics among pharmacy students at King Saud University, Riyadh
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