Matthew Wright
The winners of this year’s Royal Pharmaceutical Society Awards have been revealed at the annual dinner of the RPS Conference on 7 September 2014.
At the event held in Birmingham, individuals from all sectors of pharmacy were recognised for their outstanding contribution to the profession.
David Theo Raynor was handed the lifetime achievement award for his extensive work to improve how information about medicines is communicated to patients. He is currently a professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Leeds, specialising in medicines and their users. In 2004, he established the university spin-off company, Luto Research, which specialises in providing patient information user-testing services to the pharmaceutical industry. Raynor worked with the British National Formulary (BNF) to revise the mandatory medicine label wording, which is now used by all UK pharmacists. He has also acted as an adviser for the Commission on Human Medicines, the European Medicines Agency, the European Parliament, and the US Food and Drug Administration.
Winner of the clinical pharmacist of the year award was Julia Blagburn, senior lead clinical pharmacist for older people’s medicine and community health at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In 2013, she was part of a project that aimed to reduce the readmission of elderly patients to hospital after they are discharged.
Bawan Abdullah Ahmed, regulatory affairs officer at Kurdistan Medical Control Agency in Iraq, won the leadership in pharmacy award. Ahmed has been instrumental in developing an anti-counterfeit medicines programme in Iraq, which at the end of 2012 had successfully seized 400 tonnes of counterfeit medicines that were previously rife in Iraq’s markets.
Scooping the public health pharmacist of the year was Chima Olughu, public health programme manager for the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Cardiovascular disease is among the leading causes of poor life expectancy in Greenwich. Olughu helped lead a project that enlisted pharmacies to provide cardiovascular health checks to eligible residents in the borough.
Alison Strath, professor of community pharmacy practice at Robert Gordon University, won the excellence in education award for her contribution to pharmacy practice policy and engagement of students in primary care services. She has established inter-professional education programmes between pharmacy and medicine, and summer scholarships for pharmacy students to develop education tools in collaboration with students from other disciplines.
Pre-registration pharmacist of the year was awarded to Saqlain Shah of Central Manchester Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Shah has successfully instigated changes to the way renal patients are managed in a hospital transplant unit and has developed a web app called “Antibiotic dosing in renal impairment”. He also sits on the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association as the educational development officer, in addition to running a programme of health checks through his local mosque.
Cristina Dumitru at the University of Bath took home the student of the year award after she initiated and organised the hosting of an independent Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference at the university.
The Local Practice Forum of the year went to Birmingham and Solihull LPF for its proactive approach to pharmacy leadership, which includes outstanding work with the RPS Faculty, its contribution to the work of the BNF for Children and its development of close links with numerous other pharmacy organisations.
Ellen Schafheutle was officially given the Pharmacy Research UK award, which she won in May 2014. She will deliver a keynote speech at the RPS Conference on Monday 8 September 2014.
Finally, the Pharmaceutical Science Expert Advisory Panel, a stakeholder group of the RPS, received an award in recognition of its contribution to promoting the pharmaceutical sciences.
