Drug usage and pharmacy practice
The mission of this group is to undertake research that addresses issues of importance in informing and shaping practice, governance and policy relating to medicines and pharmacy. The group’s programme of research is enquiry-driven, but informed by healthcare policy priorities to ensure a high level of relevance and utility to policy makers and practitioners.
Research activity relates to:
Safety and quality are over-arching themes for the Group that includes:
- Evaluating the risks (and benefits) of medicines
- Improving the safety of systems for prescribing
- Dispensing and usage of medicines
- Understanding issues affecting the 'fitness to practice' of the pharmacy workforce
Medicines usage
- The Group has a well established reputation in prescribing research, both medical and non-medical, with a focus on reducing prescribing errors and improving prescribing quality.
- It has made an acknowledged contribution to improving medicines access both through establishing the feasibility of commissioning minor ailments schemes through community pharmacies, and uniquely, by exploring the impact of prescription charges on access to medicines under the NHS.
- Using meta-analysis, discrete-choice and pharmacoepidemiological methods, the Group is developing a reputation for undertaking authoritative studies on drug risks and safety.
Profession and practice of pharmacy
- The major development in the Group recently has been the creation of 'The Workforce Academy' involving the establishment of two research-based centres, the Centre for Pharmacy Workforce Studies (CPWS) and the Centre for Innovation in Practice (CIP), alongside the national Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE).
- The Workforce Academy is planned as a national research observatory on pharmacy workforce and practice. It has unparalleled resources and access to study the pharmacy workforce.
- Current studies include:
- Entrants to pharmacy schools
- Aspects of pharmacy undergraduate teaching and learning
- Career aspirations and experiences of pharmacy students and new registered pharmacists
- Motivation and incentivisation in community pharmacy
- Locum pharmacists
- Determining and developing quality and safety cultures in community pharmacy
- Learning, assessment and 'fitness to practice' of the practising workforce
- The international migration of pharmacists
A key priority within the group is developing research capacity in the specialist areas of health services research (HSR) applied to medicines and pharmacy, and so the group annually sponsors PhD studentships. The make-up of the group is determinedly multidisciplinary.
Given its high research standing, the Group has also been successful in attracting prestigious postdoctoral awards, including a NHS Primary Care Career Scientist Award and two international Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy. Three of our academic staff have been recipients of the annual Practice Research Award at the British Pharmaceutical Conference (BPC) and two have been nominated Practice Chair of BPC.
Over 40 PhD students have undertaken their studies within the group, and a significant number of former members of the Group have been appointed to senior academic or research posts in universities in the UK and abroad.
Highlighted journals where we publish
- American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
- Annals of Pharmacotherapy
- British Medical Journal
- Health and Social Care in the Community
- Health Policy
- International Journal for Quality in Health Care
- International Journal of Pharmacy Practice
- Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics
- Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
- Journal of Health Services Research and Policy
- Medical Education
- Patient Education and Counselling
- Pharmaceutical Journal
- Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
- Pharmacy Education
- Pharmacy World and Science
- Primary Health Care Research and Development
- Quality and Safety in Health Care
- Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy
- Social Science and Medicine
