The attitudes of medical students towards rare diseases: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

It is necessary to improve the knowledge and attitudes of medical students towards pharmacotherapy of rare diseases. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 175023]

Medical students' knowledge and opinions about rare diseases: A case study from Poland

“…It is important because while RD are life threatening and chronically debilitating diseases that significantly reduce patients' quality of life, their early detection, diagnosis and therapy enable the patient's daily functioning and increase their quality of life. Thus, although during the past few years there have been an increasing number of campaigns and initiatives aiming at addressing RD, including celebration of Rare Disease Day on February 29 th (which was first organized in 2008 in numerous European countries and in Canada), and creation of many websites dedicated to RD and their particular types, still there can be observed a lack of knowledge about RD among the general population (9,10), medical students (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and healthcare professionals, including physicians and pharmacists (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Consequently, RD patients and their families report that due to physicians' lack of knowledge and disease-related experience they have to become selfexperts on their own disease and educate physicians about their condition (18,23,24).…”

“…While our understanding of genetically based human diseases has increased significantly and genetics constitutes an important part of medical education, still many educational programs lack specific courses dedicated to RD. Consequently, medical students often do not receive necessary training in RD (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16).…”

“…Only 25% of healthcare students from la Rioja, Spain knew the definitions of RD and orphan drugs and the majority did not believe that research or funding for RD should be prioritized (12). While medical students in Serbia recognized many problems related to drug provisions for RD patients they demonstrated a moderate level of knowledge about RD and did not consider them an important social problem (15). Also, many Pakistani pharmacy students from Karachi lacked knowledge about RD (14).…”

How to Live with Rare Diseases in Serbia: The Knowledge and Attitudes of Patients Regarding Medical, Societal and Bioethical Aspects of this Issue

“…Here we noticed a significant difference in attitudes between patients and 3 rd and 6 th year medical students that we have examined previously (patients 9 vs. 3 rd year 5.9 and 6 th year 5.8, P <0.01). In opposite, observed patients and future medical doctors showed similar opinion regarding the overall quality of healthcare of patients affected with rare diseases in general (10-point Likert scale, patients 3.5 vs. 3 rd year 2.2 and 6 th year 2.4, P < 0.05) [7].…”

The role of modern genetic in prevention and diagnosis of rare diseases

“…A comprehensive approach to rare diseases includes the strengthening of knowledge and skills of health professionals, thus ongoing training sessions have been conducted (MEDIĆ et al, 2016). In addition to acquiring knowledge via compulsory courses at the Faculties of Medical Sciences and Faculties of Science, public awareness campaigns have been launched encouraging motivating educational programs (designed by the members of the National Committee for Bioethics at the National Academy of Science and Art and the Centre for Bioethics in Belgrade) or media campaigns as the Rare Disease Day ("HugForRare", February 2016).…”