Objective. Peer tutoring programs may be one method of maintaining quality of pharmacy education in the face of growing student enrollment and a small faculty body. A critical review of the literature was performed to ascertain whether peer tutoring programs improve or maintain the academic performance of health care professional students. Methods. Various electronic databases and abstracts from past American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's annual meetings were searched to identify pertinent research. Only those articles with quantitative data, an experimental design, and comparative statistical analysis were included for review.Results. Most studies found that peer tutoring had a positive impact on academic performance. These results may not be readily generalizable as there were numerous methodological flaws and limited descriptions of the programs and participants. Implications. Studies with better designs and more detail are needed to answer definitively whether peer tutoring is of benefit. Details of what resources were required should be included in the study to allow the reader to determine the feasibility of the intervention.

Objective. To determine how US and Canadian pharmacy schools include content related to health disparities and cultural competence and health literacy in curriculum as well as to review assessment practices. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was distributed to 143 accredited and candidate-status pharmacy programs in the United States and 10 in Canada in three phases. Statistical analysis was performed to assess inter-institutional variability and relationships between institutional characteristics and survey results. Results. After stratification by institutional characteristics, no significant differences were found between the 72 (50%) responding institutions in the United States and the eight (80%) in Canada. A core group of faculty typically taught health disparities and cultural competence content and/or health literacy. Health disparities and cultural competence was primarily taught in multiple courses across multiple years in the pre-APPE curriculum. While health literacy was primarily taught in multiple courses in one year in the pre-APPE curriculum in Canada (75.0%), delivery of health literacy was more varied in the United States, including in a single course (20.0%), multiple courses in one year (17.1%), and multiple courses in multiple years (48.6%). Health disparities and cultural competence and health literacy was mostly taught at the introduction or reinforcement level. Active-learning approaches were mostly used in the United States, whereas in Canada active learning was more frequently used in teaching health literacy (62.5%) than health disparities and cultural competence (37.5%). Few institutions reported providing professional preceptor development. Conclusion.The majority of responding pharmacy schools in the United States and Canada include

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) is necessary for the development of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide but 80% occurs in developing countries, not countries with Pap screening programs. Pap screening programs in industrialized countries have reduced the incidence of cervical cancer to 4–8/100,000 women. HPV vaccines may be a promising strategy for cervical cancer in women without access to screening programs. In industrialized countries, the benefit of HPV vaccines focuses on individual abnormal Pap test reduction not cancer prevention. The focus of this review is to cover the side effects of Gardasil in perspective with the limited population benefit cervical cancer reduction in countries with organized Pap screening programs. In addition, information about Gardasil benefits, risks and unknowns for individual patient decision making for vaccination is presented. Gardasil offers protection against CIN 2+ lesions caused by HPV 16/18 and against genital warts caused by HPV 6/11 for at least 5 years. Combining Gardasil with repeated cytology screenings may reduce the proportion of abnormal cytology screens and hence reduce the associated morbidity with the subsequent colposcopies and excisional procedures.

Background: U.S. pharmacy schools need to engage in improving intercultural competence among administrators, faculty, staff, and students. The Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) can be a possible tool to determine the level of intercultural competence. U.S. pharmacy schools need to examine the validity of the IDI within the context of health professional education prior to using this tool. Objectives: To describe the relationship between the IDI and its underlying theory, identify whether the validity of the IDI has been established within two specific contexts, and discuss the practical issues and implications of using the IDI. Methods: Medline, Embase, and selected health professional education journal websites were searched to identify fully published studies utilizing the IDI within health professional education. Eligibility of articles was determined with a standardized approach. Results: Ten studies were identified by full-text reviews, but none investigated the validity of the IDI. Conclusions: The IDI has been shown to be valid in certain contexts, but its validity has yet to be confirmed within health professional education. U.S. pharmacy schools need to examine practical issues and implications when deciding if the resources required to administer, analyze, and report IDI results are reasonable.