Assessment of the need for pharmacogenomics education among pharmacists in the West Bank of Palestine

Abstract

Background Pharmacogenomics testing aims to optimise therapy and reduce the inter‐individual variation in drug response. One of the major barriers against the implementation of pharmacogenomics testing is the low level of knowledge on the topic. Aims This study aimed to evaluate the need for pharmacogenomics education among pharmacists in the West Bank of Palestine. Methods This study was cross‐sectional and included 370 pharmacists, among different cities in the West Bank of Palestine between October and December 2020. The questionnaire consisted of 25 close‐ended questions that evaluated the exposure to pharmacogenomics education, attitude toward the role of pharmacogenomics testing in clinical practice and self‐capability of pharmacists in pharmacogenomics testing. Results It was found that 60% of the respondents disagreed that pharmacogenomics was an integral part of the pharmacy school curriculum and/or experiential education. The vast majority of the respondents (94%) agreed that pharmacists should be required to have some knowledge of pharmacogenomics. The majority of the respondents (88.6%) believe that pharmacogenomics testing will improve pharmacists' ability to more effectively control drug therapy expenditures. However, only 38% of the respondents could identify medications that require pharmacogenomics testing, and only 35.1% could identify reliable sources of information regarding pharmacogenomics for healthcare providers and patients. Conclusion It is seen from the results of this study that there is a high need to learn about pharmacogenomics testing, which can help the pharmacists make pharmacotherapy decisions. Additionally, current pharmacists have low self‐confidence in making decisions depending on the results of pharmacogenomics testing. It is recommended to increase the exposure of pharmacogenomics knowledge by including the subject in courses and workshops in pharmacy school curricula in the West Bank of Palestine.

Demand for Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine in the United Arab Emirates

“…These findings among healthcare providers in the UAE are consistent with those in other Middle Eastern countries. Similar results were reported in Jordan [10], the West Bank of Palestine [11], Egypt [12], and Qatar [13], where all participating pharmacists had poor knowledge but highly positive attitudes regarding pharmacogenomic testing. These findings indicate that there is a demand to improve knowledge about pharmacogenomic testing among pharmacists and other healthcare providers in Middle Eastern Arabic countries.…”

“…These surveys of the attitudes toward and knowledge and practice of pharmacogenomic testing in Middle Eastern countries were conducted recently, and pharmacogenomic testing is still not implemented in clinical practice in these countries. The lack of pharmacogenomics knowledge and training appears to be the major obstacle to the implementation of pharmacogenomic testing in clinical practice in the Middle East, including the UAE [6,11,12,14]. Some universities in the UAE and Qatar have recently established science departments providing graduate certificates in pharmacogenomics and PM.…”

Knowledge, attitude and perception of community pharmacists towards pharmacogenomics services in northern Nigeria: a cross-sectional study

“…It was also found that more than two-thirds of the community pharmacists could not identify clopidogrel and pantoprazole as medications that need pharmacogenomics testing while one-third could not identify paroxetine, simvastatin and warfarin. This result is supported by a study conducted among Palestinian pharmacists which showed that more than two-thirds are not aware of medications that require pharmacogenomics testing [ 32 ]. Inadequate knowledge of pharmacogenomics can be attributed to lack of previous pharmacogenomics training among the respondents as less than one-third of the respondents in this study had previous training.…”

Pharmacogenomics in Psychiatry Practice: The Value and the Challenges

“…Such studies highlight the significance of pharmacogenetics research, particularly in the Middle East, where the lack of such data and awareness hinders the implementation of pharmacogenomics into practice [ 150 ].…”