Improving the Pharmacology Curriculum at a German Medical School: A Structured Plan Based on a Student-Guided...

With rapid progress in medicine, a thorough understanding of pharmacology remains crucial. Currently, lecturers are implementing competency-based learning objectives in medical curricula around the world. Advancing teaching modalities need to be integrated into pharmacology courses in a reasonable way. At Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich Medical Faculty, a systematic evidence-based approach was used to modernize pharmacology classes. The needs assessment was conducted by final-year students. It included focus groups and a large-scale online survey, which was distributed among all medical students at LMU, with 1018 students participating (response rate 20%). Survey results showed that most of the students (92%) aimed to become pharmacology-adept doctors. Also, a majority (88%) stated that their goal was to understand the material most critical to application of pharmacology concepts as well as prescribing practice. Only 38% of the students reported satisfaction with the current curriculum, and 93% supported modernization. Thus far, pharmacology teaching at LMU Munich had mainly consisted of lectures attended by 200 students. Now, students advocated for a stronger integration of clinical pharmacology teaching into clinical subjects in the last 2 years of medical school. Specifically, they called for classes with smaller groups of students including problem-based learning as well as video podcasts. These results provided the foundation for change in curriculum at the LMU medical school. In conclusion, a structured approach for curriculum development that considers students' views is feasible and can reveal their actual goals and demands. The approach has proven successful at LMU Munich and is transferrable to other universities.