Development of a patient education video about pharmacogenetics

Last Updated on June 16, 2017 by Joseph Gut – thasso

June 16, 2017 – Patient education in pharmacogenetics, the central component of theragenomic and personalized medicine and individualized drug safety is an important issue. Not only needs the individual patient to understand what pharmacogenetics, or more precisely, pharmacogenetic testing can do for him in the process of

selection of the “right” targeted treatment for his condition, but he also needs to understand possible aspects of pharmacogenetic testing that may result as a collateral, such as, for example, aspects concerning health and life insurances.

In a recent article in the Open Access Journal “Journal of Personalized Medicine (JPM)”, a team of researchers from Duke University Department of Medicine, Center for Applied Genomics and Precision Medicine, 304 Research Drive, Box 90141, Durham, NC 27710, USA, OhioHealth Genetic Counseling Program, Bing Cancer Center, 500 Thomas Ln Ste 2D Columbus, Columbus, OH 43214, USA, and University of North Carolina, Greensboro School of Health and Human Services, Genetic Counseling Program, 1400 Spring Garden St. Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA, describes their effort to create an Patient Education Video about Pharmacogenetics.

The authors R. Mills, M. Ensinger, N. Callanan, and S. B. Haga’s motivation to do was the fact that few patient-friendly educational resources about pharmacogenetics are currently available. Therefore, the authors aimed to create and assess a patient educational video on pharmacogenetic testing. A primary literature and resources review was conducted to inform the content and the format of the video. The educational video was then created using a commercially available animation program and pilot tested in focus groups of the general public and by an online survey of pharmacists. Emerging themes from the focus groups and survey indicated a desire for appropriate risk contextualization and specific examples when pharmacogenetic testing may be beneficial. Focus group participants also expressed a preference for a video with live action, and more text to reinforce concepts. Pharmacists generally felt that the video was understandable for patients and relevant for decision-making regarding testing. Using this initial feedback and the identification of important concepts to include in pharmacogenetics educational tools, the authors plan to revise the video, perform additional evaluations, and publish newly edited version of the video for public use in the future.

Readers of thasso post can view and get a first impression of the version 2.0 of the video here. Readers at thasso post are also encouraged to leave their feedback or comment on desirable improvement on this video via the comment form to this post.