OBJECTIVES: In an era of expanding health sectors and rising costs, pharmacists are expected to have a working knowledge of pharmacoeconomics (PE) to better use resources and improve health outcomes and quality of care. However, PE education is not uniformly provided to pharmacy students in the United States (US). This study investigates the current status of PE education in the didactic and experiential curriculum of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs in the US.

METHODS: The website and curriculum of all US-based colleges and schools of pharmacy with accredited professional degree programs were searched to identify relevant PE content and investigate the discrepancies in education.

RESULTS: 111 out of 141 pharmacy programs (~79%) had information about PE education on their websites. All the programs provided some required level of PE education. The goals and descriptions of PE contents were broad, mainly covering introductory concepts and principles of PE. At most institutions (48%), PE instructions primarily occurred in the third year. The nature of the delivery of PE varied between programs, with some institutions teaching PE jointly with or embedding the content within another course, such as pharmacy administration, pharmacoepidemiology, or population health. The number of credit hours provided to PharmD students ranged from 1 to 7. Only a few institutions had stand-alone courses in PE course.

CONCLUSIONS: While challenges remain in thoroughly integrating all its contents into the PharmD curricula, it is safe to argue that adequate PE knowledge can significantly expand the pharmacist’s scope of practice. Given that the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education has incorporated pharmacoeconomics as a required component of pharmacy curricula, obtaining more specific recommendations concerning what topics should be included in the PharmD curricula is essential. Curricula must also ensure that PharmD students are provided with opportunities to apply skills taught in PE to “real world” problems.