Gene-eral survey to describe genomic education needs in hospital pharmacy departments in the West Midlands and Oxford
Authors: Ochoa-Ferraro A , Monro M , Watts N , Wickens H 
Published: November 2024

Introduction

Genomic medicine is a rapidly developing field and a priority for the NHS to ensure it is embedded into Medicine Service Alliance is that the NHS staff have understanding and confidence to utilise genomics safely and effectively. Pharmacy professionals, as experts in medicines, will lead the implementation and delivery of pharmacogenomics and wider genomic medicine services across all healthcare sectors1.

Aim

To understand current levels of genomic education across NHS Trust Pharmacy Departments in the Central and South region, and preferences for types of future learning.

Methods

A MS Forms survey was distributed across the Pharmacy Departments of five NHS Trusts, emailed to all local pharmacy staff via the Education and Training lead pharmacists; all pharmacy staff were eligible to participate, and total numbers of staff were not available. The survey was based on a previously published national survey2, but reduced in content to allow completion within 5 minutes; content was agreed between the genomics specialist pharmacy team at C&S. Ethics approval was not sought as this baseline evaluation formed part of a planned service improvement.

Results

One hundred and twenty-nine respondents participated in the survey, including pharmacists (62%), pharmacy technicians (29%) and assistant technical officers (5%). Seventy-one out of 127 respondents (56%) had more than 10 years of experience since qualified. Given a scale of ’very low-low-medium -high-very high’, the majority of the 127 respondents (63%) considered their knowledge about Genomic Medicine to be medium or high, and no responder considered themselves to have a very high level of knowledge about Genomic Medicine.

Most participants saw the relevance of Genomic Medicine to their professions, particularly in areas like personalised medicine and 82% expressed an interest in learning more about Genomic Medicine and 15% answered ’Maybe’; the cohort had a preference for in-person meetings and seminars (32%), followed by on-line meetings (27%).

Discussion / Conclusion

Respondents saw the relevance of Genomic Medicine to their professions, and showed a mixture of enthusiasm, curiosity, and uncertainty about Genomic Medicine, with no respondent feeling they had a very high level of knowledge of Genomic Medicine. Most pharmacy staff in the 5 departments surveyed have an interest in furthering their knowledge of Genomic Medicine, with a marked preference for in-person meetings and seminars.

Respondents recognised the potential benefits such as personalized medicine, improved treatment outcomes and reduced trial-and-error approaches in medication selection, with expectations that Genomic Medicine will improve patient care and outcomes, reducing adverse events and informing treatment decisions

Limitations to this study include an inability to judge response rate due to lack of denominator data, however relatively similar numbers were obtained from each Department, with a good mix of respondent roles. An in-person training event with hybrid online options is being planned as a result of this work.

References

1. Gammal, R, Pharmacist Leading the Way to Precision Medicine: Updates to the Core Pharmacist Competencies in Genomics, Am J Pharm Educ, 2022, Volume 86 (issue 4), page 269 to 275.

2. Wickens, HJ, S Simpson, A Pope, J Allen. Pharmacy and Genomic Medicine: A UK-wide survey of pharmacy staff assessing their prior education, confidence and educational needs IJPP, Volume 31, Issue Supplement_2, December 2023, Page ii53, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpp/riad074.066