Oncology Pharmacy Education

Dear Colleagues, 

Oncology has become a very active and important area of pharmacy practice. Despite the increasing demand for oncology pharmacists, there is a lack of adequate education being provided by pharmacy schools. We reported in 2015 that only 15% of pharmacy students took a required or an elective APPE oncology rotation (Curr Pharm Teach Learn (2015) 7: 451–457). In addition, on average only 30% of a class was exposed to an oncology experience (for an average class size of 100). Furthermore, the number of training programs for prospective oncology pharmacists (PGY2 programs) amounts to only about 200 per year, and the number of Board Certified Oncology Pharmacists in 2020 is only about 3600. Thus, the growth of trained oncology pharmacists is inadequate to meet the demand for patient care. How are you training your pharmacists to become effective oncology pharmacy practitioners? How many hours are being devoted to didactics and how many hours to practical? Do you employ testing to evaluate competency if a practitioner is not board certified? 

We invite you to submit a descriptive or objective study demonstrating an innovative approach to educating oncology pharmacy practitioners. We hope that this call for papers will inspire you to share your experiences and programs with us. 

Prof. Dr. Robert Ignoffo
Guest Editors

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• Oncology
• Pharmacy
• Education
• Students
• Pharmacy residents
• Oncology APPE