Response: We Need to Be Smarter Than Our Smartphones

To the Editor: We thank Drs. Wissman and Hogan for their response to our commentary, which appeared in the April 2018 issue of the Journal, “Smartphones, Memory, and Pharmacy Education.”¹ In their response, they recommended the use of smartphones in pharmacy education as not only devices to look up information but also as learning tools to “expand [students’] knowledgebase.”² There are many applications designed to enhance and assess learning in the modern environment including those specific to pharmacy education. For example, MyDispense provides a simulated environment that allows pharmacy students to acquire dispensing knowledge, to self-assess their dispensing accuracy, and to develop interpersonal skills.² We, as pharmacy educators, should be maximizing the use of these types of technologies to enrich the educational experiences of our students.

In addition, you proposed extending the use of technology to clinical practice but cautioned that inconsistencies and inaccuracies exist within some online medical resources. To this point, it is not only an imperative to provide students with foundational knowledge but also with critical thinking skills. Students and practitioners should not be using information from online resources without considering context, but rather, they should be applying their pharmacy education to determine if the information provided is both accurate and consistent with their recognition of conflicting information.

With smartphones becoming increasingly more integrated into our daily experiences, we should be looking for ways to leverage the use of these devices to enhance and improve pharmacy education. However, we should also be teaching the vital skills needed to use them— and the information they provide— in a safe and appropriate manner.