A revisited version of the disputatio for pharmacological training: An educational study

Louise Carton; Romain Bordy; Perle Totoson; Edouard-Jules Laforgue; Jean-Marc Pelerin; Thomas Portier-Feunteun; Sabine Mainbourg; Dominique Deplanque; Luc Zimmer; Silvy Laporte; Régis Bordet; Guillaume Grenet; Samuel Legeay

doi:10.1016/j.therap.2023.10.016

A revisited version of the disputatio for pharmacological training: An educational study

Therapie. 2023 Nov 18:S0040-5957(23)00184-1. doi: 10.1016/j.therap.2023.10.016. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Université de Lille, CHU de Lille, 59037 Lille, France.
² Université de Tours, 37000 Tours, France.
³ Université de Franche-Comté, 25000 Besançon, France.
⁴ Université de Nantes, CHU de Nantes, 44093 Nantes, France.
⁵ Université de Nancy, CHU de Nancy, 54035 Nancy, France.
⁶ Université de Paris Cité, Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75006 Paris, France.
⁷ Université de Lyon, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69002 Lyon, France.
⁸ Université de Saint-Étienne, CHU de Saint-Étienne, 42023 Saint-Étienne, France.
⁹ Université d'Angers, 49000 Angers, France. Electronic address: samuel.legeay@univ-angers.fr.

PMID: 38008601
DOI: 10.1016/j.therap.2023.10.016

Abstract

Objective: The disputatio is a pedagogical method existing since the Middle-Ages where students had to debate about a question asked by a "master", exercising their thinking and oratory skills. To move away from traditional vertical teaching methods, the disputatio has been revived by pharmacologists. Thus, for almost three successive years, several groups of young French pharmacologists and therapists confronted their ideas concerning a medical question at a therapeutic impasse. The aim here is to describe the initial feedback received from participants.

Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was sent by email in May 2023 to the participants of the different disputationes of 2019, 2022 and 2023. Participants were asked about different aspects of their feelings before, during and after the disputatio, using the 5-point Likert scale. They were also asked to describe the event in 2 to 5 words. Finally, participants could leave their comments in a free-field and were asked to give an overall satisfaction score out of 10.

Results: Out of the 39 participants, 27 (69.2%) answered the questionnaire. Although 50% of respondents reported a feeling of anxiety before participating, most enjoyed the expert talks as well as working with people they did not know. Besides, over 66% reported having underestimated the skills they could share with colleagues from different backgrounds. Over 55% of respondents reported progress in methodology, and over 83% in pharmacology and/or therapeutics. Participants reported an overall satisfaction score of 8.6/10, and the main terms used to describe the event were "sharing", "enriching" and "meeting".

Conclusion: The disputatio is an innovative training program whose pedagogical and human values were underlined by most of the participants. Beyond pharmacology and therapeutics, the principle of disputatio could be extended to other disciplines, spanning the centuries.

Keywords: Pharmacology; Therapeutics; Training program.