Integration of medicinal chemistry in therapeutic decision-making: A way forward?

Many attempts have been made to integrate medicinal chemistry knowledge into therapeutic decision-making in pharmacy programs across North America. Examples include the use of Structure-Based Therapeutic Evaluations, alignment of medicinal chemistry content with courses in pharmacology, pharmaceutics and pharmacotherapeutics, and team-based or problem-based learning methods. The majority of these approaches indicate that students have greater confidence or comfort with medicinal chemistry, but there remain few cases where an improvement in performance has been measured.

Medicinal chemistry curriculum and pedagogical practices at Canadian pharmacy schools: Towards standardization of practice.

Introduction: Medicinal chemistry instruction in PharmD programs at Canadian universities is considered an important foundational science. However, with few guidelines for the required content most programs have observed a decrease in hours of medicinal chemistry instruction. A Medicinal Chemistry Special Interest Group (SIG) was formed to address these issues nationally and initiated a pan-Canadian environmental scan to better understand the depth and breadth of medicinal chemistry instruction.

Interrogating Our Views on the Impact of Education-Related Scholarship.

From junior faculty members to seasoned full professors, pharmacy educators have likely all felt pressure to focus on peer-reviewed publication. Although publication is an important part of an academician's work, have we missed something critical by not focusing greater attention on a more inclusive conceptualization of education-related scholarship's impact? How can we describe the full impact of our education-related scholarship beyond traditional metrics (ie, publications, presentations, and grant funding) if the issue is not critically examined? With the growing expectations for scholarly teaching and interest in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in academic pharmacy in both the United States and Canada, this commentary examines and questions the current, often narrow, views on pharmacy educators' scholarly impact. In addition, it provides a new definition of education-related impact to encourage a more expansive view.

Guiding Ethics Review in Pharmacy Education Research and Scholarship at UBC: Clarifying the Unclear.

While it goes without saying that ethically sound practices are imperative for high-quality educational scholarship, institutional ethics guidance is often unclear about how to treat educational scholarship generally, and quality improvement/assurance studies and the scholarship of teaching and learning, specifically. Amongst health profession education researchers, including those in pharmacy, this lack of clarity has led to confusion regarding existing ethics governance and ambivalence regarding ethics requirements. Drawing on the experiences of one pharmacy school in western Canada, this commentary describes an ethics vetting guide developed explicitly to address current uncertainty about ethics requirements for pharmacy education scholarship.

A Tool for Creating Snapshots of Faculty Contributions to Pharmacy Education.

Most faculty members' contributions to pharmacy education are significant but often challenging to document and describe. In addition, contributions may go unrecognized or rewarded unless the work results in a publication or presentation. Drawing on a metaphor of the importance of a fisher taking a photo to capture memories of a successful fishing trip, this commentary examines methods for faculty to identify and organize their academic contributions.

Lecture capture in pharmacy education at UBC: Updating our understanding.

Introduction: Lecture capture is a contemporary learning technology used to improve the quality of professional programs such as pharmacy. Building on our 2014 study, the objective of this study was to reexamine the value of lecture capture for student and faculty users and make decisions about its continuance and optimization.

Methods: Survey methodology was used to gather student and faculty perspectives on the lecture recordings.

A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Teaching and Learning Technology in a Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

To conduct a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of investment in teaching and learning technology (TLT) by a college of pharmacy in a large, research-intensive university in Canada. Document analysis was used to determine the goals and objectives of the university and college for TLT use. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with faculty members to understand their perspectives on the value of technology for teaching and learning, their metrics to assess value, and an estimate of social value using a willingness to pay (WTP) exercise.

Student and faculty member perspectives on lecture capture in pharmacy education.

Objectives: To examine faculty members' and students' use and perceptions of lecture recordings in a previously implemented lecture-capture initiative.

Methods: Patterns of using lecture recordings were determined from software analytics, and surveys were conducted to determine awareness and usage, effect on attendance and other behaviors, and learning impact.

Results: Most students and faculty members were aware of and appreciated the recordings.

Informed shared decision making: An exploratory study in pharmacy.

Introduction: A study was undertaken to examine the feasibility of using the physician-based Informed Shared Decision Making (ISDM) framework for teaching pharmacy students competencies to effectively develop therapeutic relationships with patients.

Objectives: TO: (1) assess the relevance and importance of the physician-developed ISDM competencies for pharmacy practice, (2) determine which competencies would be easiest and hardest to practice, (3) identify barriers to implementing ISDM in pharmacy practice, and (4) identify typical situations in which ISDM is or could be practiced.

Methods: Twenty pharmacists representing 4 different practices were interviewed using a standardized interview protocol.

Using remote access to scientific instrumentation to create authentic learning activities in pharmaceutical analysis.

Objectives: To pilot test and evaluate a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS) case study as a teaching and learning tool.

Design: A case study incorporating remote access to a GCMS instrument through the Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN) at Western Washington University was developed and implemented. Student surveys, faculty interviews, and examination score data were used to evaluate learning.