PharmaCORE: Optimizing medical pharmacology education with an innovative instructional dashboard

Diminishing emphasis on pharmacology education in medical schools has resulted in a concerning lack of prescribing knowledge among physician graduates. These concerns mirror our graduates’ expressed dissatisfaction with the structure and quality of pharmacology educational experiences over the past 5 years. PharmaCORE, a web-based instructional dashboard, was developed as an interactive faculty development tool to enhance integration and instruction of pharmacology content in pre-clinical curriculum at a US medical school. PharmaCORE was introduced in Spring 2022 for instructors teaching pharmacology in the pre-clinical curriculum. Instructors used the dashboard to assess coverage of specific drug topics throughout the curriculum and to apply tailored, learner-centered teaching strategies to optimize learner engagement and comprehension. The initial assessment indicated that the dashboard was user-friendly and positively influenced instructor awareness of pharmacology content and learner-centered teaching. This faculty development approach underscores the importance of skill-based mapping and maintaining learner-centered teaching standards to address other integrated subjects and broader curricular challenges. This study lays the foundation for the broader applicability of instructional dashboards in tracking and addressing curricular challenges across pharmacology and other science subjects. Future steps include more personalized feedback for instructors, creating a student-accessible version, and ongoing monitoring of maintenance measures like milestone exams.

医学院校对药理学教育的重视程度持续弱化，已造成医科毕业生普遍存在令人担忧的处方知识匮乏问题。此类担忧与过去五年间该校毕业生所表达的对药理学教育体验的结构与质量的不满相呼应。PharmaCORE是一款基于网页的教学仪表盘（web-based instructional dashboard），作为交互式师资发展工具开发而成，旨在强化美国某医学院临床前课程中药理学内容的整合与教学。该工具于2022年春季面向临床前课程的药理学授课教师正式推出。教师可借助该仪表盘评估全课程范围内特定药物主题的覆盖情况，并应用定制化的以学习者为中心的教学策略，以提升学习者的参与度与理解水平。初步评估结果显示，该仪表盘具备良好的用户友好性，且可有效提升教师对药理学内容以及以学习者为中心教学的认知水平。此类师资发展方法凸显了基于技能的课程映射以及维持以学习者为中心的教学标准的重要性，可用于应对其他整合型学科以及更广泛的课程挑战。本研究为教学仪表盘在药理学及其他理科学科中追踪并解决课程挑战的更广泛应用奠定了基础。后续工作将包括为教师提供更具针对性的个性化反馈、开发面向学生的可用版本，以及对里程碑考试等维护措施开展持续监测。