Advancing Pharmacogenomics Education: Standardization and Opportunities in Pharmacy

Pharmacy Times interviewed Christine Formea, PharmD, MHI, BCPS, FCCP, FASHP, a pharmacogenomics clinical pharmacist at Children's Hospital Colorado and an expert consultant/advisor for American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in Aurora, Colorado, on her participation as a part of the education workshop in the Standardizing Laboratory Practices in Pharmacogenomics (STRIPE) Annual Meeting and Consensus Workshop at the headquarters of US Pharmacopeia (USP) in Rockville, Maryland. Formea highlighted the need for greater standardization and clarity in pharmacogenomics education, emphasizing the importance of consensus on competencies, nomenclature, and interprofessional approaches.

Current pharmacy education varies widely, with some institutions integrating pharmacogenomics throughout curricula, while others offer it as electives or through experiential opportunities like advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs). She explained key terminology, distinguishing pharmacokinetics (how the body processes drugs), pharmacodynamics (how drugs affect the body), pharmacogenomics (genome-wide drug response study), and pharmacogenetics (specific gene-drug interactions).

Educational opportunities in pharmacogenomics have expanded, including continuing education (CE) programs, professional journals, PGY-2 residencies, and fellowships. Formea emphasized the value of networking and collaboration, noting that initiatives such as the STRIPE collaborative community bring together diverse stakeholders, including the FDA, to promote consensus and innovation. By participating in these efforts, pharmacists and students can contribute to advancing the profession while benefiting from exposure to research, writing, and professional growth opportunities.

Pharmacy Times: What information from the workshop would be valuable for pharmacists to understand about education in pharmacogenomics?

Christine Formea, PharmD, MHI, BCPS, FCCP, FASHP: I think we have a tremendous opportunity to be able to bring consensus around education, how we use nomenclature, how we define our competencies and expectations of our pharmacists, of our pharmacist learners and professional programs. Even our interprofessional interactions, and how we bring education for pharmacogenomics—see that through that interprofessional lens.

Pharmacy Times: Are there any key takeaways in relation to education from the STRIPE meeting?

Formea: I think that we're moving towards consensus statements here, and really trying to align the different professions and to better define expectations that haven't been very clear in things like the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) guidelines and American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) toolkits. And really, to bring pharmacogenomics into that expectation of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics or pharmacogenetics. [We’re] really bringing that together to the forefront in requiring those components within and in a standardized way in our educational programs.

Pharmacy Times: Can you describe the difference between pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, and other terminologies that pharmacists may encounter?

Formea: Pharmacokinetics is what the body does to the drug. When somebody takes a medication, the medication is absorbed, it's distributed, it's metabolized, and then it's excreted from the body ADME. Once that drug is within the body, in the system, what the drug does to the body is pharmacodynamics. That's where you have a concentration of drug at the target sites, at the receptor levels, and those are key components that we all learn within our pharmacy training. In terms of pharmacogenomics and pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics is really thinking about the whole genome. I call it “the whole burrito.” It's all the components within the genome, within that map of human life. When we talk about pharmacogenetics, we are speaking specifically about genes—a very small set, 1 or 2—these very individual genes, and they're very specific, different allele types, so subsets of genes; different flavors of ice cream, if you will. Those are all pieces that we use, those language terms. That's how we differentiate them as we speak about these terms.

Pharmacy Times: How standardized is inclusion of pharmacogenomics within pharmacy education currently?

Formea: I would say currently, we do not see a lot of standardization across the different programs. We have different levels of uptake across the country, or different penetrance, if you will. It's different at all the colleges and schools of pharmacy; some programs have incorporated pharmacogenomics or genetics within throughout their curriculum, in a vertical kind of way. Other programs have taken the direction of having pharmacogenomic or pharmacogenetic education electives, APPEs for example. So, we have a variety of different opportunities in some places. We even have professors that may be doing projects with students and bringing them in piecemeal. So, it's a very diverse approach to incorporating pharmacogenomics currently.

Pharmacy Times: What are some educational opportunities that pharmacies can seek out to learn about pharmacogenomics?

Formea: That's a great question. We have a lot of opportunities. They've been growing over the years. They include such things, as were mentioned, CE programs at the national level, at the national meetings, it's pretty commonly incorporated now. There are CEs within our professional journals. That's been recent, a new change. We also have opportunities within clinical residency training programs, PGY-2 and pharmacogenomics. Different programs have been growing, and the numbers are increasing across the country. We have fellowships in research-specific areas in different areas of the country, in different areas of pharmacy practice and medicine. We also have ABIEs and IPPEs and those settings. So, there's a lot of opportunities to be able to incorporate pharmacogenomics into experiential opportunities.

Pharmacy Times: What is the value of pharmacogenomics education for pharmacists and students?

Formea: In terms of becoming involved with these different educational opportunities, I think [they] give pharmacists and students exposure to these wonderful committees and national groups and provides opportunities for networking. I think a lot of these meetings and conferences, especially the STRIPE Conference and Consensus workshops, many people who have been here have networked and have come to know each other over a number of years. Once a student or a pharmacist becomes involved with these groups, it's easy to become involved and become a member of our list serves and be pulled into these different activities because we're very, very busy. We have lots of different writing opportunities and collaborations. It's not uncommon for the pharmacists, regardless of their professional setting, whether they're in academia or they're in clinical practice, we have our pharmacists collaborating. There was a call for papers, for example, and several of us will just jump on a call, and we'll start writing a paper for a for a call and a target like, for example, for the end of the year, we'll be working on maybe an education paper or something for patient ed or things like that. So, it's a great way to bring people together and to grow in the profession. Also, it's just a matter of showing up. I tell the students, just showing up is half the battle. Becoming involved that way is just a really phenomenal opportunity.

Pharmacy Times: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Formea: I think this meeting has just been fantastic. From the standpoint of this being a collaborative community, a very big and open discussion with members of the FDA, and Sara Rogers had mentioned today that there's 200 organizations that have come together to join into the STRIPE collaborative community. Representatives have come in from various perspectives. In terms of having some very vibrant and open discussions about things that we all have different positions on some of these different statements and these different ideas, but it's wonderful to come together to work towards consensus together.