[Implementation of pharmacology in outcome-based education]

In 1999, with the report "To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System" from the Institute of Medicine of the United States Academy of Sciences, social needs for quality assurance and improvement in medical care increased. Restructuring of clinical education and quality assurance of medical education were proposed as measures to improve the medical care delivery system and improve the quality of medical care. Outcome-based education (OBE) has become a global standard to ensure the quality of medical education. Medical education in Japan has also undergone a paradigm shift from the process-based education to OBE, in which learning outcomes are clearly indicated and achieved. An implementation of pharmacology to OBE was constructed in four steps. Step 1 is to set learning outcomes, Step 2 is to create learning strategies according to sequential performance levels for each competency, Step 3 is to create learning outcome evaluation methods, and Step 4 is to verify and improve the entire curriculum. As milestones for graduation that lead to learning outcomes, we have independently formulated the outcome of being able to safely prescribe the optimal drug (under the guidance and supervision of a preceptor) based on the treatment plan and with the patient's and family's explanations and consent. Learning objectives related to pharmacotherapy were extracted from the 2022 revision of the medical education model core curriculum. We created a curriculum and an evaluation method for learning outcomes, and introduced the Chiba University School of Medicine's efforts to verify and improve the entire curriculum.