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Biography
My PhD was a BBSRC Industrial CASE award with Reckitt Benckiser, co-supervised between Dr Colin Melia founder of the Formulations Insights research group in the School of Pharmacy and Professor John Mitchell, Head of the Division of Food Sciences at the Sutton Bonington campus. My project investigated the solution properties of polyelectrolyte mixtures containing the polysaccharide xanthan gum, and from this work a patent was filed relating to some novel mixtures that significantly increase in viscosity on dilution with water.
Following my PhD I continued working in community pharmacy practice along with Sessional teaching support and consultancy work for a number of modules within the Nottingham Pharmacy practice teaching area. During this time I worked closely with the university learning technologists to redevelop the ScripWare tool to be web-based providing students with the opportunity to access exercises whenever and wherever they wished, with multiple attempts to allow for continuous improvement none of which had been available on the previous system.
In 2007 I was appointed to a fixed term lectureships as Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice with a teaching focus. In 2009 this post was made permanent including a health services research component.
Today my research focuses on the areas of patient safety and community pharmacy practice. The projects I have been involved in to date have had significant impact on practice. The PINCER trial demonstrated the impact a pharmacist, using IT clinical system information, can have on the safety of prescribing for patients in primary care (LANCET, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61817-5). The New Medicine Service (NMS) evaluation looked at the impact of a pharmacist led intervention to improve medicines adherence in community practice. This study showed that the intervention not only improved patient's adherence to medicines but also was highly probable to save money for the NHS, making it both effective and cost effective. (BMJ Quality and Safety http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004400; Pharmacoeconomics http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40273-017-0554-9). I also conduct research in the area of pharmacy education,
Expertise Summary
Patient Safety
Health Services Research
Pharmacy Law and Ethics
Pharmacy Practice
Primary Health Care
Teaching Summary
I am a passionate teacher and strongly believe that our role as academics is to provide our students with the best possible educational opportunities to allow them to develop as individuals and be… read more
Research Summary
My research focuses on the areas of patient safety and pharmacy practice having transitioned from my pharmaceutics based PhD area.
My research in these areas started with work on the PINCER trial led by Prof Tony Avery extracting data from UK GP clinical systems to quantify the impact of a pharmacist intervention on prescribing safety. This study showed that pharmacists can reduce clinically significant errors in a sustained manner. The main study report can be found here and the main study paper was published in the LANCET
I worked with Prof Nick Barber (UCL) on the national evaluation of the NHS Electronic Prescription Service (release 2) commissioned by NHS Connecting for Health. In this project I was responsible for the co-design of the data collection tool and recording system for dispensing discrepancies in the safety work package. I was also closely involved with the work package looking at the impact of the system roll out on working practices in general practice and community pharmacies. The final report for the EPS project is available here and the main paper on safety here and impact on community pharmacy here
In 2012 I was a co-principal investigator for the New Medicine Service (NMS) Project, commissioned by the Department of Health. In this study we investigated the impact of a community pharmacy intervention on medicines adherence. We demonstrated that the intervention improved adherence in a cost effective manner. The main study website, including the final report, is available at www.NMSevaluation.org.uk and the main study papers are (effectiveness) here and (cost-effectiveness) here.
In 2016 I was commissioned to evaluate a local initiative to implement community pharmacist prescribers in general practices. This work has now reported and is available here.
Current research includes the NHS England commissioned national evaluation of Wave 1 Pharmacists in General Practices. The lead researcher on this project is Dr Claire Mann.
Working with Prof Tony Avery I am researching the national roll out of the PINCER intervention in general practices across England. We are also investigating the prevalence of "Avoidable harm in general practice" funded by the Department of Health.
I currently have 6 PhD students in my research team
- Khalid Muhammad (2014-) Primary care medication safety incidents as reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) in England and Wales
- Yasmin Karsan (2015-) New models of care and community pharmacy (co-funded by Boots)
- Norah Alosaimi (2015-) Understanding Intercultural Competence amongst Pharmacy Undergraduate Students
- Olufunmilayo Agbesanwa (2016-) Adherence, Monitored Dosage Systems and the implementation of Biodose Connect (co-funded by Protomed UK)
- Mohammed Alsubaie (2016-) Strategies to improve quality of Health Professionals error reporting
- Matthew Naybour (2016-) Applying Reliability Engineering techniques to the Community Pharmacy Dispensing Process (EPSRC Funded, joint PhD with Engineering Faculty Risk and Reliability research group)
I have supervised 4 students to completion
- Dr Naseeba Al Ozaibi (2011) Patient and professional perceptions of metabolic syndrome and its management: A Qualitative study in the United Arab Emirates
- Dr Oluwagbemileke Ojeleye (2014) Evaluation of community pharmacy electronic patient medication record systems' functionality focusing on safety features and alerts
- Dr Katharine M. Wells (2014) Evaluating the implementation of the New Medicine Service in England (funded by Boots UK)
- Dr Muna Al Juma (2017) Self care in Oman: public and health care professional perspectives
Selected Publications
ELLIOTT, R.A., TANAJEWSK, L., GKOUNTOURAS, G., AVERY, A.J., BARBER, N., MEHTA, R., BOYD, M.J., LATIF, A., CHUTER, A. and WARING, J., 2017. Cost effectiveness of support for people starting a new medication for a long term condition through community pharmacies: an economic evaluation of the New Medicine Service (NMS) compared with normal practice. PharmacoEconomics. Published Online First: 3 August 2017, ELLIOTT, R.A., BOYD, M.J., SALEMA, N., DAVIES, J., BARBER, N., MEHTA, R.L., TANAJEWSKI, L., WARING, J., LATIF, A., GKOUNTOURAS, G., AVERY, A.J., CHUTER, A. and CRAIG, C., 2016. Supporting adherence for people starting a new medication for a long-term condition through community pharmacies: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of the New Medicine Service BMJ Quality and Safety. 25(10), 747-758 WARING, J., LATIF, A., BOYD, M., BARBER, N. and ELLIOTT, R, 2016. Pastoral power in the community pharmacy: a Foucauldian analysis of services to promote patient adherence to new medicine use Social Science & Medicine. 148, 123-130 LATIF, A., WARING, J., WATMOUGH, D., BARBER, N., CHUTER, A., DAVIES, J., SALEMA, N., BOYD, M.J. and ELLIOTT, R.A., 2016. Examination of England's New Medicine Service (NMS) of complex health care interventions in community pharmacy Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. 12(6), 966-989
I am a passionate teacher and strongly believe that our role as academics is to provide our students with the best possible educational opportunities to allow them to develop as individuals and be the best that they can be.
I teach various aspects of the MPharm curriculum but contribute principally to professional practice, leadership and management, pharmacy law and ethics and pharmaceutical calculations. I try to ensure that I am constantly innovating with my teaching and am a passionate user of technology to enhance teaching where appropriate. In 2009 I was awarded a Lord Dearing Award for Teaching Excellence for the development and use of e-learning technology in teaching.
Current responsibilities
- Head of MPharm Year 4
- School Lead for Fitness to Practise
- Co-convenor Year 4 Pharmacy Leadership and Management Module (B34PLM) with Mr Vibhu Solanki.
- Convenor B34PRO Professional competencies convenor
I am a contributor to a number of other modules including:
Year 1
- B31ESP - Essential skills for Pharmacists (Pharmaceutical Calculations)
- B31BFI - Bacterial and Fungal Infections (OTC infections)
Year 2
- B32CVS - Cardiovascular (Medical negligence)
- B32RED - Renal and Endocrine (Prescribing law, ethics of organ transplantation, development and conduct of community clinical services)
- B32SHP - Sexual Health and Pregnancy (Ethics)
Year 3
- B32RPJ - Research Project supervisor
Previous convenor roles
- B31A10 - Introduction to Pharmacy Practice (Deprecated)
- School lead for primary care placements
In 2013 I was asked to co-lead and the Pharmacy Leadership and Management (PLM) module for the new MPharm curriculum to commence in 2015. This module uses gamification to allow students to run their own simulated primary-care based pharmacy in a competitive environment. This module is based on the design of the GIMMICs consortia (www.gimmics.nl). PLM is a fully integrated 12 simulation, students in groups of 6 compete against each other, scoring points according to how well they handle each of the challenges presented to them. Over the 12 days of simulation, each group will experience over 180 scenarios, which can be face-to-face, telephone or email based. They will process 400+ prescriptions, have the opportunity to attend various training updates and also contribute to the development of longer term projects such as service design and development.
In 2016 the PLM team were awarded a team Lord Dearing Award for Teaching Excellence in recognition of the success of this highly innovative module
I also look after the operation and ongoing development of the ScripWare IT system used for Professional Practice classes and Pharmacy Leadership and Management. I was recognised for my use of eLearning to support student learning with a personal Lord Dearing Award in 2009