Dataset Information

Knowledge, perceptions and confidence of physicians and pharmacists towards pharmacogenetics practice in Kuwait.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pharmacogenetics practice has been successfully implemented in many developed countries to enhance personalized medicine and improve clinical and economic outcomes. An understanding of healthcare providers' knowledge, perceptions, confidence towards pharmacogenetics, and their active enrollment with pharmacogenetic testing is essential for test acceptance and utilization. This study was designed to assess physicians' and pharmacists' knowledge, perceptions, and confidence towards pharmacogenetics, determine the preferred learning format for their future education in pharmacogenetics, and identify the barriers to its application in their practice settings.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a pretested self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 629 randomly selected physicians and pharmacists. Descriptive and comparative analyses were used in data analysis.

Results

The response rate was 98.1%. Less than one-tenth of respondents were exposed to pharmacogenetics education or training (8.9%), applied pharmacogenetics testing in their practice (9.4%), or provided patient counselling on the results of the pharmacogenetic testing (9.1%), and over 90% of them were physicians. The overall respondents' mean (SD) total knowledge score percentage was low [45.0% (24)] and there was no significant difference between the physicians and pharmacists scores (p>0.05). Only 16.0% of participants indicated that they felt confident in applying pharmacogenetics in their practice settings. Despite these low levels of knowledge and self-confidence, 70.2% of participants expressed overall positive perceptions towards pharmacogenetics and its clinical implications. These positive overall perceptions were found to be significantly more common among pharmacists compared to physicians (p<0.05). The top two perceived barriers facing the implementation of pharmacogenetics in Kuwait were lack of education or training and clinical guidelines.

Conclusions

These findings highlight important concerns and will aid in the assessment of current pharmacogenetics practice. Also, they will provide further insight in designing future targeted multifaceted interventions to promote the adoption and utilization of pharmacogenetics testing in Kuwait.

SUBMITTER: Albassam A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6124749 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Knowledge, perceptions and confidence of physicians and pharmacists towards pharmacogenetics practice in Kuwait.

Albassam Abdullah A Alshammari Shahad S Ouda Ghadeer G Koshy Samuel S Awad Abdelmoneim A

PloS one 20180905 9

<h4>Background</h4>Pharmacogenetics practice has been successfully implemented in many developed countries to enhance personalized medicine and improve clinical and economic outcomes. An understanding of healthcare providers' knowledge, perceptions, confidence towards pharmacogenetics, and their active enrollment with pharmacogenetic testing is essential for test acceptance and utilization. This study was designed to assess physicians' and pharmacists' knowledge, perceptions, and confidence towa ...[more]

PMID: 30183746

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Project description:OBJECTIVES:To assess the knowledge, perception and practices towards medication reconciliation (MedRec) and its related institutional policies among physicians and pharmacists in governmental hospitals in Kuwait and identifying potential obstacles that prevent the successful implementation of MedRec. DESIGN:A descriptive, cross-sectional study. SETTING:Six governmental hospitals across Kuwait in January-May 2017. PARTICIPANTS:351 physicians and 214 pharmacists. BRIEF INTERVENTION:A self-administered questionnaire distributed to the participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:Knowledge, perception, attitudes and practices of hospital physicians and pharmacists towards MedRec, and major barriers to implementing a MedRec process in their institution/department. RESULTS:Of the 739 questionnaires distributed, 565 were completed (351 physicians and 214 pharmacists), giving a response rate of 76.5%. Results showed that most participants were familiar with the term MedRec (n=419; 75.2%) with significantly more pharmacists compared with physicians (n=171; 81.8% vs n=248; 71.3%; p=0.005). Most participants (n=432; 80.0%) reported perceiving MedRec as a valuable process for patient safety. However, significantly more physicians compared with pharmacists were aware of a MedRec policy in their institution (n=195; 55.9% vs n=78; 37.9%; p<0.001) and routinely asked patients about their current list of medication on arrival (n=339; 96.6% vs n=129; 61.1%; p<0.001) and provided an updated list on discharge (n=281; 80.1% vs n=107; 52.0%; p<0.001). These results are supported by the findings that participants perceived physicians as providers, mainly responsible for various steps of MedRec. CONCLUSIONS:Overall, this study showed low awareness among physicians and pharmacists of hospital policy despite MedRec being perceived as valuable. Physicians were the providers most responsible and involved in MedRec, who may be driven by the policy putting them at core of the process. The current findings could pave the way for the expansion of the existing MedRec policies and processes in Kuwait to include pharmacists and improve patient safety.

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Dataset Information

Knowledge, perceptions and confidence of physicians and pharmacists towards pharmacogenetics practice in Kuwait.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Knowledge, perceptions and confidence of physicians and pharmacists towards pharmacogenetics practice in Kuwait.

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