Table 1 Additional feedback on pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics teaching

Understanding of disease susceptibility and treatment response is changing rapidly given advances in biomedicine in general. Doctors need to be much more aware of these developments and their incipient impact on medical practice

Content OK when compared to content of rest of pharmacology teaching in curriculum, which is not great

This questionnaire does not really work for our integrated programme

I can only really speak for the clinical course, and I am sure there are aspects of pharmacogenetics that are covered in the preclinical years, in both genetics and pharmacology, although I do not have this detailed information. In the clinical years we concentrate on teaching pharmacogenetics in the context of therapeutics, so where there are examples that can readily demonstrate its uses

In terms of their needs for F1 prescribing, I think the current amount of teaching in pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics I give is probably sufficient. In 2007 I also set an integrative assignment on pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics for students doing a BMedSci in clinical pharmacology

Likely to gain in prominence

It is difficult to answer these questions in what is a student centred, self-directed PBL course. There are triggers within the PBL scenarios to some of the issues but the individual student will decide to what depth they need to explore so it is difficult to estimate ‘teaching’ of this subject in the traditional sense and we can only give estimates of learning. The nature of a PBL course should be such that students develop the skills of being able to find out what they need to know when they need to know it. They should also be searching in the most up to date evidence and thus should be meeting the areas you describe

We focus on the practical reality of PG and its impact on PD. Much of the impact that PG will make on prescribing remains aspirational rather than a reality with the exception of a few key drugs and ethnic groups. We introduce students to these issues. We do not examine students in a specific PG paper/questions but integrate such topics into more general clinically focussed assessments

I believe the report is correct to point out the importance of this. However, we already have modules and associated classes beginning at 08:00. To implement effective learning would require sacrifice elsewhere. I would be interested in information that could allow the students to attain at least the basics, but further expansion may be impossible