Mandy Wan

Paediatric clinical trials come with specific requirements and challenges, and Mandy Wan’s expertise in this area is hard to match. Mandy has supported several multicentre paediatric clinical trials in the UK and across the EU, and she was the only pharmacist in the paediatric working group for the national ‘RECOVERY’ COVID-19 trial. 

Mandy completed her preregistration training in 2003 with Pfizer and St George’s Hospital in London. Her first steps into research were taken as a rotational pharmacist becoming involved in clinical trials. In 2008, she joined the team at the Great Ormond Street Clinical Research Facility for Children as a specialist pharmacist supporting the delivery of paediatric clinical trials. Mandy subsequently progressed into a proactive research role and received her PhD from King’s College London in 2021, having used big data to understand vitamin D prescribing practices and applied pharmacokinetic modelling to determine the optimal dosing strategy of vitamin D in children with chronic kidney disease. She now works as a clinical academic and is quickly establishing herself as a leading paediatric pharmacist researcher. 

Mandy’s motivation comes from a determination to improve medicines use in children and, after working successfully in an operational research role, it was a desire to do more that led into clinical academia. 

“I remember one day getting very annoyed picking up the phone and answering the same questions about vitamin D prescribing over and over again so I decided to apply for funding and set about answering these questions properly,” she says.   

Her first PhD publication in 2019 on vitamin D prescribing in children in the UK had an immediate impact, being selected by BMJ Open for press release owing to its broad relevancy to a general audience. Her work has already resulted in improvements in prescribing guidance.  

Mandy’s research has focused on using big data techniques and pharmacokinetic modelling to answer important clinical questions. 

“In paediatrics, clinical trials can’t answer every question,” she explains.  “Getting the data you need from trials isn’t always practical but if we can answer these questions differently using the data that’s already available to us then we should. 

“We come across patient data day in, day out and, as pharmacists, we understand the data. What we need to do next as a profession is to be able to utilise that data and develop the skills to analyse it effectively.” 

Mandy also had some interesting reflections on how moving into a clinical academic role has influenced the way she thinks about her clinical work. 

“Having spent some dedicated time in research, you do start to look at practice slightly differently. Ideas and questions have always jumped out to me but the big difference now is that I have developed skills that make you think ‘Actually I can make use of that, I can take that idea forward’.”

Publications

Wan M, King L, Baugh N et al. Gutted: constipation in children with chronic kidney disease and on dialysis. Pediatr Nephrol 2023. doi:10.1007/s00467-022-05849-y

Wan M, Alessandrini E, Turner M. Risk-proportionate approach to paediatric clinical trials: The legal requirements, challenges, and the way forward under the European Union Clinical Trials Regulation. Clin Trials 2022;19(5):573-578. doi: 10.1177/17407745221093812

Wan M, Patel J, Rait G et al. Hypervitaminosis D and nephrocalcinosis: too much of a good thing? Pediatr Nephrol 2022;37(10):2225-2229. doi: 10.1007/s00467-022-05513-5

Wan M, Begum R & Rashed A. Trends, geographical variation and factors associated with melatonin prescribing in general practices in England: A practice-level analysis. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2022;88(5):2430–2436. doi: 10.1111/bcp.15136

Wan M, Green B, Iyengar AA et al. Population pharmacokinetics and dose optimisation of colecalciferol in paediatric patients with chronic kidney disease. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2022;88(3):1223–1234. doi: 10.1111/bcp.15064

Wan M, Patel A, Patel JP et al. Quality and use of unlicensed vitamin D preparations in primary care in England: Retrospective review of national prescription data and laboratory analysis. Br J Clin Pharmacol 2021;87(3):1338–1346. doi: 10.1111/bcp.14521

Preka E, Wan M, Price K et al. Free 25-hydroxyvitamin-D concentrations are lower in children with renal transplant compared with chronic kidney disease. Pediatr Nephrol 2020;35(6):1069-1079. doi: 10.1007/s00467-020-04472-z

Wan M, Horsfall L, Basatemur E at al. Vitamin D prescribing in children in UK primary care practices: a population-based cohort study. BMJ Open 2019;9(12):e031870. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031870

Wan M, Hashimi A & Batchelor H. Pharmacy and formulation support for paediatric clinical trials in England Int J Pharm 2016;511(2):1163–8. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.03.059

Wan M, Orlu-Gul M, Legay H et al. Blinding in pharmacological trials: the devil is in the details. Arch Dis Child 2013;98(9):656-9. doi: 10.1136/archdischild-2013-304037

Wan M, Smith S, Shah V et al. Fibroblast growth factor 23 and soluble klotho in children with chronic kidney disease. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2013;28(1):153-61. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfs411

Co-authored publications

Snauwaert E, Paglialonga F, Walle J et al. The benefits of dietary fiber: the gastrointestinal tract and beyond. Pediatr Nephrol 2022. doi: 10.1007/s00467-022-05837-2

Bosma A, Ouwerkerk W, Heidema M et al. Comparison of real-world treatment outcomes of systemic immunomodulating therapy in atopic dermatitis patients with dark and light skin types. JAAD Int 2022;10:14-24. doi: 10.1016/j.jdin.2022.09.006

Kamath N, Iyengar A, Reddy H et al. Changes in bone biomarkers in response to different dosing regimens of cholecalciferol supplementation in children with chronic kidney disease. Pediatr Nephrol 2022. doi: 10.1007/s00467-022-05790-0

Iyengar A, Kamath N, Reddy H et al. Determining the optimal cholecalciferol dosing regimen in children with CKD: a randomized controlled trial. Nephrol Dial Transplant 2022;37(2):326-334. doi: 10.1093/ndt/gfaa369