Perceptions of students in health and molecular life sciences regarding pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine

Lejla Mahmutovic,Faruk Berat Akcesme,Camil Durakovic,Aida Maric,Oliver Feeney,Nour Hamad,Betul Akcesme,Sabina Semiz,Matthias Wjst,Muhamed Adilovic

doi:10.1186/s40246-018-0182-2

Abstract

BackgroundIncreasing evidence is demonstrating that a patient’s unique genetic profile can be used to detect the disease’s onset, prevent its progression, and optimize its treatment. This led to the increased global efforts to implement personalized medicine (PM) and pharmacogenomics (PG) in clinical practice. Here we investigated the perceptions of students from different universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) towards PG/PM as well as related ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI). This descriptive, cross-sectional study is based on the survey of 559 students from the Faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, Health Studies, Genetics, and Bioengineering and other study programs.ResultsOur results showed that 50% of students heard about personal genome testing companies and 69% consider having a genetic test done. A majority of students (57%) agreed that PM represents a promising healthcare model, and 40% of students agreed that their study program is well designed for understanding PG/PM. This latter opinion seems to be particularly influenced by the field of study (7.23, CI 1.99–26.2, p = 0.003). Students with this opinion are also more willing to continue their postgraduate education in the PM (OR = 4.68, CI 2.59–8.47, p < 0.001). Furthermore, 45% of students are aware of different ethical aspects of genetic testing, with most of them (46%) being concerned about the patient’s privacy.ConclusionsOur results indicate a positive attitude of biomedical students in Bosnia and Herzegovina towards genetic testing and personalized medicine. Importantly, our results emphasize the key importance of pharmacogenomic education for more efficient translation of precision medicine into clinical practice.

Highlights

Increasing evidence is demonstrating that a patient’s unique genetic profile can be used to detect the disease’s onset, prevent its progression, and optimize its treatment
Students’ attitudes towards pharmacogenetic testing and personalized medicine Participants’ responses to almost all survey questions regarding their awareness and attitudes towards genetic testing, pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine, and corresponding ELSI are shown in the tables, with selected ones that are further elaborated in the discussion
Students’ awareness about the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) Our results showed that about 45% of all students participating in our survey are aware of different ethical aspects of genetic testing, ranging from 27% of students at the Faculty of Health Studies to 54% of pharmacy students (p < 0.01, Table 8 and Additional file 6)

Summary

Introduction

Increasing evidence is demonstrating that a patient’s unique genetic profile can be used to detect the disease’s onset, prevent its progression, and optimize its treatment This led to the increased global efforts to implement personalized medicine (PM) and pharmacogenomics (PG) in clinical practice. Previous studies have shown that many physicians and pharmacists have positive attitudes towards the clinical application(s) of PG/PM [14, 15] It appears that an inadequate knowledge and experience among some physicians and other healthcare professionals are the key drawbacks in more efficient clinical application of pharmacogenomics [14, 16,17,18], suggesting that it would be pertinent to introduce more PG topics in their professional education

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion