University of York

Graduate Student, SATSU

Thesis Title: Pharmacogenetic Technology and the Pharmacy Profession

About

My PhD is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Pharmacy Practice Research Trust (PPRT) and supervised by Professor Andrew Webster. It focuses on pharmacogenetic technology (PGx) and its relationship with, and potential impacts upon, the pharmacy profession in England.

The English pharmacy profession, particularly in community practice, is experiencing major changes related to the support and management of prescribed medicines and a move towards independent and supplementary prescribing by pharmacists themselves.

Running concurrently to these changes in the pharmacy profession is the development of PGx, or personalised medicine. This technology uses patients’ genotypic data to minimise the risk of adverse drug reactions, which are estimated to cost the NHS £637 million annually.

The uptake of this technology is likely to create greater demands on pharmacists that will require new working practices and increased and strengthened links between hospital and community pharmacists. It is likely that within this priority will be given to pre-prescription screening and post-marketing surveillance. In addition, hospital pharmacists will be invited to become more involved in clinical trials involving PGx tests.

Given this, my thesis will understand how recent developments in technology and patient/medicine management will affect the occupational status of the pharmacist; whether the changing role of pharmacists is likely to affect the uptake of technology; and, within this, what might be the specific implications of PGx as one of the more significant diagnostic tests for pharmacists working in hospital-based settings, in specialist pharmacy services, and those on the 'high street' as either independent suppliers or part of the large multiples in the UK.

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