ClinPharm Fellows as Producers: Developing an online course in clinical pharmacology as a profession

Christian Egly, Bjorn Knollmann, & Kendra Oliver

Abstract

We outline the process for developing the fellow-generated course and summarize their potential benefits on the Fellow's professional development. Clinical pharmacology (ClinPharm) Fellows planned and generated an online course in ClinPharm. Preparation included an online course, a two-part course design, and a video production workshop. The Fellows recorded 10-minute lectures, generated assessments, and identified additional resources. The final content was consolidated, reviewed by ClinPharm faculty, and then made public. This case study outlines a professional development opportunity that benefits both the ClinPharm Fellows while creating an introductory, public-facing course.

BACKGROUND

Professional development (PD) training is essential for a Fellow's future career. Clinical pharmacology (ClinPharm) studies the interactions between therapeutic agents and people and is the foundation for using therapeutic agents for healthcare treatment. Although the media rarely mentioned the importance of clinical pharmacologists throughout the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) global pandemic, many were at the frontlines of health care every day[1]. They have acted as medication experts, providing patient care in various settings, including hospitals, clinics, and community pharmacies. PD training related to communication is essential for clinical pharmacists and their role within the medical ecosystem.

Course design and video production are two activities related to communication that educators can easily incorporate into training programs. While the focus of training programs is providing mentored research, fellows need to be able to communicate about their areas of expertise. Video and digital resources are an ever-growing means of communication and information dissemination. Many people rely on YouTube to solve problems, search for information, and learn about their health[2]. In addition, communication is a central cross-curricular clinical competence[3,4]. Students do not need to merely consume video content but also produce content on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube[5]. With access to equipment, such as smartphone cameras, students can develop communication skills through video production.

Fellow- or student-generated content (SGC) is one pedagogical method of PD where students become producers of knowledge rather than merely consumers[6–8]. Students can create video recordings and contribute information within an academic context[9]. SGC can also allow students to share their perspectives and experiences and demonstrate specific techniques or skills[10]. It can also allow students to practice communication in a lower-stakes environment[3,4], play different roles in the creation phases[11,12], or interact with experts in the field[13]. These videos can also potentially participate in international video competitions[15]. Videos can be peer-reviewed, which promotes higher-quality content and learning opportunities[15]. In addition, student-generated videos allow for transversal competencies such as communication and collaboration[5]. These and content generation are digital skills necessary for social and professional success in the modern world. They can be incorporated as tangible products into their resumes and teaching portfolios[16,17]. Ultimately, the SGC approach to professional development adds tangible value to a fellow’s professional development.

Here, we present a pilot program where ClinPharm fellows generated the components for a new online course. This course provided insights into the role of scientists in clinical and translational research, provided an overview and examples of how basic science and clinical observations lead to translational research, and increased awareness and access to potential career pathways. We found that most fellows felt that the video production training benefited their PD and that this value was not associated with an increased interest in teaching. Our pilot results suggest that additional opportunities for fellows to be trained in and create video content would be an impactful PD communication opportunity. These approaches generally encourage the incorporation of students-as-producers’ opportunities for medical and science students.

Figure 1. Overview of the program.

Figure 1. Overview of the program. There was a need for a short course in clinical pharmacology, and organizers helped to design the course outline. We decided to explore the opportunity to offer a professional development opportunity via student-generated content created by VUMC T32 clinical pharmacology fellows (A). Clinical pharmacology fellows took a short online drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK). Next, Drug Discovery Online trained fellows in course design and creating video lectures in a two-part series. The chief fellow and program director also conducted an assessment plan to evaluate this pilot program (B). Critiques by faculty in the division of clinical pharmacology allowed the opportunity for improvement.

ACTIVITY

Drug Discovery Online Platform. The Drug Discovery Online program has developed 2-week mini-courses and uses the Higher Education Quality Matters (Q.M.) rubrics to guide design[18–20]. Brightspace was used to deliver content [21]. Drug Discovery Online is under the Vanderbilt Program for Outreach and Research Education Umbrella. VPORE serves as a core facility to assist and provide consultation for online and in-person programs, courses, and resource creation related to outreach and education for external audiences.

Program. Vanderbilt's ClinPharm Fellowship Program is highly successful and has produced graduates in prominent positions in academia, industry, and regulatory agencies. The training period is at least two years and is weighted towards learning through mentored research. Formal coursework and directed learning provide education in core skills. Trainees include individuals with an M.D., Ph.D., and Pharm.D. degree who plan a career in ClinPharm or a career that will be strengthened by significant exposure to ClinPharm.

PD training design. The chief ClinPharm fellow chose the course topics and generated the learning objectives for each topic. The course was designed to be approximately two weeks of content for an intensive introduction to ClinPharm. Ten ClinPharm fellows created individual course content. Final topics included health policy, basic clinical measures, complementary and alternative medicines, medication reconciliation, literature evaluation, pediatric populations, pharmacovigilance, and pharmacogenomics. The content involved a ten-minute video lecture highlighting the main concepts of each topic, two references, and one quiz or other assessment of the fellows' choosing.

Training for ClinPharm Fellows included completing a two-week course on Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics that Drug Discovery Online created. The fellows reviewed their understanding of basic principles while also reviewing the experience of online courses. Next, fellows attended a two-part PD workshop to learn the basics of course design and video production. The training utilized the framework outlined in Castillo et al.[22]. Workshops included creating learning objects and developing assessments that test those learning objectives. The first part introduced fellows to video production, which included writing a script and creating a storyboard. The second session provided fellows with more explicit instruction in recording video lectures.

Survey. Upon completing the course, fellows were asked to complete a brief survey of seven open-response questions detailing their experience (N=7). The first three questions were primarily “yes” or “no” questions collected in an open-text format. In synthesizing the results, the questions were categorized as positive, negative, or neutral, with quotes for additional content.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

A short course in ClinPharm aimed to identify the intersection of basic pharmacology and practical applications. The goal was for participants to utilize databases and medication references and defend the clinical action plan for a clinical case report. Broad topics of ClinPharm were chosen and included health policy, basic clinical measures, complementary and alternative medicines, medication reconciliation, literature evaluation, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetic applications, pharmacovigilance, pediatric clinical applications, and pharmacogenomics. The content would introduce translational medicine to basic sciences and provide a framework to work with clinicians in their future careers.

Clinical and basic pharmacologists share much common ground but some crucial differences. Basic pharmacologists choose their experimental design carefully and minimize potential sources of variation. However, with clinical pharmacologists, only very large numbers of human subjects could yield reliable conclusions, and indeed that is the case when the endpoint of interest is a clinical outcome such as stroke, death, or myocardial infarction. Clinical Pharmacologists are engaged in human clinical trials, including pivotal Phase III efficacy studies. Yet, paradoxically, clinical scientists have also become adept at capturing valid conclusions from careful observations made by case studies. Access to patients with the target disease is a strength of ClinPharm. Another consideration for clinical pharmacologists is the systematic differences that would be difficult to predict a priori between healthy volunteers and patients, even when the patients have stable and chronic conditions. Despite the fundamental coherence of basic and ClinPharm, many are still somewhat unclear about the distinction.

Program directors and Fellows recognized the importance of a ClinPharm course and the potential PD opportunities. In Spring 2021, the Drug Discovery Online program director (Kendra H. Oliver, Ph.D.) provided training to 10 T32 ClinPharm Fellows through a series of short lectures. The fellows were provided additional resources and implemented the learning objective for their section of the short course on ClinPharm (Figure 1). In preparation for the course, the fellows were asked to complete a previous online course in Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics offered by Drug Discovery Online. The time invested in the PD experience was a two-week short course (3-5 hrs/week), a 1-hour workshop on course design, and a one-hour workshop on video creation.

After the students created their course material, the content was added to a course template. The course was then reviewed by two senior faculty in ClinPharm. Based on this feedback, organizers made a few corrections and clarifications. One adjustment included adding an interactive component to the course since the lectures were prerecorded. A second suggestion was to split one of the sections into two smaller components. Additionally, organizers amended the course with individual sections for drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and pediatric populations. After making these modifications, the course became available for other ClinPharm fellows in Fall 2021 (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Fellow-generated course design.

This training opportunity was positively received by the fellows. All fellows responded that the video production training benefited their career development (Table 1). Positive comments included learning educational principles and organizing a course from the beginning. Though all respondents felt creating an online course benefited their careers, this did not correlate with an increased interest in teaching. When asked what percentage effort that plan to devote to teaching the responses ranged from 0% (n=1), to 10-15% (n=3), and as high as 20%-25% (n=2). Negative comments included the assignment to fellows and the integration of each topic. Creating a more integrated course could be an opportunity to improve the course in the future with other ClinPharm fellows.

Overall, this suggests that the value of developing a course as a PD activity goes beyond teaching toward developing higher levels of skills that trainees feel are critical for their development. Our preliminary results suggest that additional opportunities for fellows to produce video content would be impactful educational opportunities for ClinPharm training programs. These approaches support student-generated educational content for fellows and provide a model for other training programs.

Figure 3. Feedback from fellows about professional development experience.