I am thoroughly enjoying my summer of soccer, which has migrated from the Women's World Cup to the Gold Cup. It is fairly easy to see parallels between my favorite sport and the BCPS recertification modules. I can recall seeing teammates suffer from acute asthma exacerbations throughout my years of playing soccer. Professional soccer players are by no means immune to asthma. David Beckham of "bend it" fame is an asthma sufferer. I wonder if he ever had a pharmacist help with his asthma action plan?
This BCPS recertification module was heavy on the cutesy acronyms for study names. MAGNETIC, WISDOM, and 3MG trials were included in this recertification module on asthma/COPD. There was also an article on azithromycin for chronic cough, but it didn't have as cool of a trial name as the others. If you're working on your own study and looking for a great name, there's a cool website that generates acronyms based on keywords or phrases (you're welcome!). Feel free to add me as an author when it is published ;)
The module itself was very straight forward compared to some of the other modules I have completed. The articles were well chosen and easy to read. Some of the assessment questions were a little repetitive, which makes you second guess what the question is really asking. The assessment went a little more quickly than previous module assessments. I was able to sit and watch the Trinidad vs Mexico Gold Cup game and breeze through this module (90 minutes + 3 minutes stoppage time to be exact).
This module was of great interest because it included two articles on the use of inhaled or intravenous magnesium for the treatment of acute asthma exacerbations in adult and pediatric patients. The jury is still out as to the benefit of this treatment, but it was quite interesting to see the inclusion of studies that did not have a overly strong positive benefit. It's refreshing to see studies like this get published despite lackluster results. I was also intrigued to see a non-inferiority study (WISDOM) included in this module. Noninferiority study designs have increased in the literature in the past few years. The assessment questions did not focus on the non-inferiority design itself. Perhaps a focus for a future ASHP recertification module? Pharmacists can greatly benefit from a thorough understanding of this study design, especially since it can easily be misinterpreted!
Pretty jazzed to review the pharmacogenomics module in August. Pharmacogenomics is undoubtedly an underutilized aspect of pharmacy practice. Do you incorporate pharmacogenomics in your day to day practice? Feel free to comment here (or reach out on Twitter: @renagosser).