Preparedness of Nigerian Medical Students for an Era of Precision Medicine – A Cross-sectional Survey in Lagos, Nigeria.

Abstract Background The increasing advances in precision medicine in Nigeria suggest improving genomics education and competency among healthcare practitioners to facilitate clinical translation. Due to the scarcity of research in this area, this study aimed to assess Nigerian medical students' preparedness to integrate precision medicine into their clinical practice. Methods This was an institution-based cross-sectional study of 300 medicine and surgery students in their clinical years attending the two fully accredited colleges of medicine in Lagos, Nigeria, between April and October 2022 using an adapted tool administered via Google Forms. The survey assessed awareness, perceived knowledge, ability and attitudes towards precision medicine, ethical concerns, and perceptions about their education in precision medicine. Multivariate linear regression models were used to assess factors associated with students’ perceived knowledge, ability and attitudes. Results Awareness of genomic medicine terminology was high (92.0%). Respondents had above-average median perceived knowledge, ability and attitude scores. Higher level in medical school was independently associated with lower perceived knowledge (p trend = 0.003) and ability (p trend = 0.005) scores, and perceived knowledge score was independently associated with a higher perceived ability score (β: 0.76 95%CI: 0.67, 0.84; p<0.001). Attitude scores significantly increased with increasing medical school year (p trend = 0.04). The respondents mostly indicated concerns about government and corporate bodies' misuse of genomic data (35.7%) and the widening of socioeconomic disparities (34.0%). Although 65.0% of the respondents thought it important to learn about precision medicine, only 11.3% felt that their education had adequately prepared them for precision medicine, knew who to ask questions regarding genomic testing (10.7%) and felt their professors had encouraged the use of precision medicine (10.3%). Conclusion Our findings highlight gaps in preparedness for precision medicine and a need to improve precision medicine education among Nigerian medical students.