Knowledge of Pharmacogenetics among Healthcare Professionals and Faculty Members of Health Training Institutions in Ghana.

BACKGROUND Pharmacogenetics has a potential for optimizing drug response and identifying risk of toxicity for patients. Pharmacogenetics knowledge of healthcare professionals and the unmet need for pharmacogenetics education in health training institutions are some of the challenges of integrating pharmacogenetics into routine medical practice. AIM To assess pharmacogenetics knowledge among healthcare professionals and faculty members of health training institutions in Ghana. METHOD Semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview healthcare professionals from selected public and private hospitals. Faculty members from health training institutions were also interviewed. RESULTS The respondents were Medical doctors 42 (46.7%), Pharmacists 29 (32.2%) and Nurses 19 (21.1%). Healthcare professionals rated their knowledge of Pharmacogenetics as Excellent 5 (5.6%), Very Good 10 (11.2%), Good 53 (60%) and Poor 19 (21.4%). Thirty-two faculty members from health training institutions were also interviewed. Faculty members rated their knowledge of pharmacogenetics as Excellent 2 (6.3%), Very Good 3 (9.4%), Good 9 (28.1%), Fair 12 (37.5%) and Poor 6 (18.8%). Thirty seven percent (12) of these faculty members said pharmacogenetics was not part of their institutions' curriculum, 7 (22%) did not know if pharmacogenetics was part of their curriculum and only 13 (40.6%) said it was part of their curriculum. CONCLUSION Few healthcare professionals and faculty members of training institutions are aware of the discipline of pharmacogenetics. There is the need for continuous professional education on pharmacogenetics and development of competency standards for all healthcare professionals in Ghana.