Student Pharmacists' Experience with Using Artificial Intelligence for Pharmacogenetic Counseling in a Skills...

To describe third-year student pharmacists' experiences using PharmTutorAI.com's Gene Counsel artificial intelligence (AI) tool for simulated pharmacogenetic counseling sessions in a skills laboratory course.

During the Fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic term, third-year student pharmacists completed 3 pharmacogenetic counseling cases focused on cardiovascular conditions, psychiatry, and epilepsy-using PharmTutorAI.com. Each case was graded and scored by the AI out of 40 points. Students were asked to complete an optional survey assessing their perceptions of AI use in this learning simulation and if they would recommend it. Open-ended survey questions were also included. Data were analyzed using KoNstanz Information MinEr and Python. Descriptive statistics were applied.

A total of 71 out of 72 students (98.6%) completed all 3 Gene Counsel AI pharmacogenetic counseling cases and the associated survey. Mean scores (out of 40) were 38.2 ± 1.5 for the cardiovascular case, 38.1 ± 1.9 for the psychiatry case, and 37.3 ± 4.9 for the epilepsy case. When asked about counseling preferences, 65.2% of students preferred both human subjects and PharmTutorAI.com cases, 24.6% preferred AI alone, and 10% preferred human-only interaction.

Students performed well on the AI-based pharmacogenetic counseling cases and expressed predominantly positive perceptions of the activity. The Gene Counsel AI tool successfully reduced faculty workload by eliminating the need for multiple facilitators per session, while enabling students to engage in multiple pharmacogenetic counseling scenarios rather than just one.