Defining core concepts in pharmacokinetics for undergraduate medical education through a multidisciplinary approach

Pharmacology education, particularly pharmacokinetics (PK), faces challenges due to students' difficulties in understanding PK concepts and applying them in clinical contexts, variability in PK content across learning materials, and the complexities of teaching PK in integrated curricula. This study aimed to identify and rank PK concepts by their relevance to undergraduate medical education, incorporating perspectives from academic pharmacologists and non-pharmacologists' clinical practitioners. A questionnaire with 110 PK concepts across 11 topics was developed. Participants, who were recruited through a target approach via email and LinkedIn®, rated them using a 6-point Likert scale. Concepts with scores 6 and ≥ 5 were classified as core and essential, respectively. A total of 170 participants completed the questionnaire, 32 % of whom were pharmacologists, with a median of 17 years of teaching experience. Seventy-five essential PK concepts were identified in the overall evaluation integrating both groups' perspectives. All concepts integrating the topics covering absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and excretion of drugs were considered essential. Principal component analysis revealed differences between pharmacologists and non-pharmacologists in their perceived relevance of the concepts. Non-pharmacologists highly value concepts related to pharmaceutical forms and drug administration. Twenty-four concepts were downgraded in the overall evaluation compared to the pharmacologists-only evaluation, particularly those related to drug transporters, PK models or those involving calculations. Therefore, non-pharmacologists group scores impacted the final ranking. This study reinforces the pertinence of defining and ranking PK concepts for undergraduate medical education and suggests that this task might benefit from the involvement of multidisciplinary teams.