Knowledge and Awareness on Personalized Medicine amongst Health Care Specialists and University Students in Health Colleges in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Aim: There are a few studies about the populations' knowledge and perceptions on personalized medicine in Saudi Arabia until now. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and awareness on personalized medicine amongst health care specialists and university students in health colleges in Saudi Arabia.
 Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study that include a survey targeting health care specialists. The survey translated to Arabic and after validation, it was converted to an online survey using google forms.
 Results: About 52.34% of the participants have heard about different terms regarding personalized medicine (personalized medicine, healthcare reform, individualized care and pharmacogenomics). Most of the health care specialists in the present study said that they have poor knowledge about personalized medicine (68.75%). Most of the participants in the present study were interested to learn about personalized medicine and showed a positive attitude about it.
 Conclusion: The present study found that health care specialists had a poor knowledge about personalized medicine but they are interested to learn more about this field. Therefore, more training and awareness programs about personalized medicine are needed to facilitate its introduction in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, more focus on this field should be introduced into the health colleges’ curricula.

Awareness and attitudes of oncology specialists toward dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase testing in Saudi Arabia

“…In a further recommendation, additional training and awareness programs are required to raise health care providers' understanding of personalized medicine and to assist its implementation in Saudi Arabia. More emphasis on this topic should be put into the curricula of health colleges 17 …”

“…An interesting study reported that HCPs have limited awareness about personalized medicine in general, but have positive attitudes toward it and are keen and eager to learn more about personalized medicine for future practice. 17 In a further recommendation, additional training and awareness programs are required to raise health care providers' understanding of personalized medicine and to assist its implementation in Saudi Arabia. More emphasis on this topic should be put into the curricula of health colleges.…”

“…More emphasis on this topic should be put into the curricula of health colleges. 17 The major strength of this study is its uniqueness in terms of assessing awareness of healthcare professionals about genetic screening prior to administering FP drugs in Saudi Arabia. We used an instrument that was carefully developed to examine physicians' current practice and attitudes toward such screening.…”

“…Previous studies have estimated the prevalence of health care professionals (HCPs) awareness toward pharmacogenomics testing to be between 31% and 62% 15–17 . For our study, we assumed that the awareness of DPD testing was ~45%.…”

“…Previous studies have estimated the prevalence of health care professionals (HCPs) awareness toward pharmacogenomics testing to be between 31% and 62%. 15 , 16 , 17 For our study, we assumed that the awareness of DPD testing was ~45%. Assuming the desired precision level of 5%, a confidence interval of 95%, and a total of 162 registered practitioners in oncology, as reported by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, the current study required the enrollment of 114 oncologists to achieve this target.…”