Proposing a Plan for the Integration of Precision Medicine into the Medical Curriculum

Abstract

Introduction Among the evolving changes in the domain of medical education, the rise of precision medicine has been a pioneering development, as it has transformed the way medical students and health-care professionals comprehend and approach their patients while delivering health-care services.[1] This educational development goes beyond the boundaries of the traditional medical curriculum, wherein the general understanding is that a single approach is appropriate to all patients who present with similar clinical manifestations.[2] In contrast, precision medicine advocates that we must give due recognition to genetic heterogeneity, biomarkers, and data integration while deciding the line of management of each patient.[3] In other words, every patient should receive personalized care depending on their individual attributes to enhance the possibility of better treatment outcomes, and lesser risk of adverse events.[3] The exposure of precision medicine to medical students during their training period will prepare the next cohort of health-care professionals for the advancements in the scientific world and will also give them adequate insights to always consider individual attributes while making any clinical decisions.[2,3] Integration of Precision Medicine into the Medical Curriculum Regardless of the multiple merits linked with precision medicine, it has still not been integrated into the medical curriculum universally, and this calls for the need to devise a step-wise plan for the integration of precision medicine into the existing medical curriculum.[4] The first step is to perform a thorough needs assessment to ascertain the areas in the existing medical curriculum relevant to precision medicine. This can be executed with the help of a survey using a questionnaire targeting different stakeholders and assessing their understanding and interest in this innovative approach to medicine.[4,5] Once the survey results are available, at the institutional level, the curriculum committee should be constituted, including experts in genomics, biomarkers, informatics, and specialists from different streams, to enable an interdisciplinary approach.[4,6] Faculty members must be trained in the concepts and technologies related to precision medicine through training programs, including periodic sensitization about recent developments.[4] The next step is to frame clear and measurable learning objectives for training medical students in precision medicine.[5] There is an immense need to train medical students in the basics of each of these newer inclusions (namely genomics, biomarkers, and data integration) right from the first professional phase, and then the same topics can be gradually built on across the subsequent professional phases.[7] The training on precision medicine can be conducted using different teaching–learning methodologies to help medical students to devise personalized treatment plans in different settings.[5,6] Institutions can even design elective courses to expose interested students to these topics in-depth and thereby augment their understanding. Furthermore, students should also be involved in discussions pertaining to the ethical implications of precision medicine, by exposing students in the domain of informed consent, maintaining confidentiality, and promoting responsible use of genetic information.[5,7] In addition, there is an immense need to advocate interdisciplinary collaboration to encourage the adoption of a holistic approach while dealing with patients.[1,4] The students must be sensitized about the need and the implications of precision medicine, in the sense, of why it is relevant now and how it is going to reshape health-care delivery.[4-6] Finally, we must devise a plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed interventions by obtaining feedback from all the stakeholders and accordingly introducing changes to ensure that each intervention remains relevant.[4] Conclusion The integration of precision medicine into medical education is not just for the sake of enriching the delivery of the education process rather, it is an initiative that will transform the way health care will be delivered in the future. Authors’ contributions SRS contributed to the conception or design of the work, drafting of the work, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work UG contributed to the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed to all aspects of the work PSB contributed to the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work PBP contributed to the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work. YT contributed to the literature review, revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content, approval of the final version of the manuscript, and agreed for all aspects of the work. Data availability statement The literature pertaining to the article can be made available at request by contacting Saurabh RamBihariLal Shrivastava at [email protected] on reasonable request. Financial support and sponsorship Nil Conflicts of interests There are no conflicts of interest.

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