Reshaping Decision-Making Through Evidence-Based Medicine Content Alignment With Pharmacotherapy

Clinical reasoning and therapeutic decision-making are critical for pharmacists. Aligning evidence-based medicine (EBM) with pharmacotherapy (PTX) courses reinforces student knowledge and supports the integration of evidence into clinical practice. This study investigates the impact of alignment on student performance across multiple cohorts by comparison to performance in a pre-alignment period.

An EBM-PTX alignment was implemented at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy in 2021 and expanded in 2022. Based on the published success of the alignment, landmark trials and aligned pharmacotherapy topics were increased from 6 to 10 in 2022. EBM skills were assessed via quizzes on these trials, and articles were discussed during pharmacotherapy lectures. Researchers evaluated the impact on clinical decision-making through exam responses and assessed student confidence and satisfaction.

Students exposed to EBM-PTX alignment showed significantly higher scores in pharmacotherapy cases and drug therapy rationale compared with pre-alignment (78.1% vs. 60.3%). Performance was particularly strong in core topics of diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia (82.4% vs. 60.5%). Students were also more likely to reference guidelines and primary literature (51.5% vs. 43.3%), with even higher rates in core topics (73.4% vs. 60.7%). Surveys indicated alignment improved students' understanding, application of EBM, and comfort with primary literature analysis. Satisfaction surveys confirmed the alignment reinforced EBM concepts and highlighted the importance of continued integration.

Two years of EBM and pharmacotherapy content alignment has shown sustained benefits in exam performance, clinical decision-making, and student confidence. The results support the continued and expanded use of this alignment approach.