[Introduction of outcome-based education in pharmaceutical education in Japan]

Although Japanese medical and pharmaceutical educators have been interested in outcome-based education (OBE) in recent years, there are still many difficulties and problematic concepts involved in curriculum building, especially in determining objectives and assessment methods. From 2015, OBE will be incorporated in a model core curriculum of pharmaceutical education in Japan. In this paper, we will introduce the outline of an operative sample of OBE derived from the National Competency Standards Framework for Pharmacists in Australia. The products shown in this paper are examples of standards, elements, and some rubric scales and descriptors in the domain of "Practical ability in pharmaceutical therapy", as presented by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and as proposed by many participants attending The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan's 3rd advanced workshop for pharmaceutical educators in 2013. We expect a helpful outline will enable each educational institution to design an appropriate OBE curriculum.