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.

医学院药理学教育的持续弱化，已导致医师毕业生普遍存在处方知识匮乏的令人担忧的问题。这一担忧与过去5年间该院校毕业生对药理学教育体验的结构与质量所表达的不满相呼应。PharmaCORE（一款基于网页的教学仪表盘）作为交互式师资发展工具被开发，旨在增强美国某医学院临床前课程中药理学内容的整合与教学工作。该工具于2022年春季面向临床前药理学授课教师正式推出。教师可通过该仪表盘评估整个课程体系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，以优化学习者的课堂参与度与知识理解水平。初步评估结果表明，该仪表盘操作便捷，且对提升教师对药理学内容的认知及采用以学习者为中心的教学方式产生了积极影响。这一师资发展方案凸显了基于技能的课程映射与维持以学习者为中心的教学标准的重要价值，可为应对其他整合性学科及更广泛的课程挑战提供参考。本研究为教学仪表盘在药理学及其他理学学科的课程挑战追踪与解决中的更广泛应用奠定了坚实基础。后续工作将包括为授课教师提供更具个性化的反馈、开发面向学生的可访问版本，以及持续监控里程碑考试等相关维护措施的落实情况。