Q&A: Celebrating World Pharmacists Day

At FDB, we’re proud to have pharmacists at the heart of our work, bringing their expertise and diverse experiences to everything we do. This World Pharmacists Day, we’re celebrating their journeys and the vital role they play in shaping the future of healthcare.

What inspired you to pursue pharmacy?
I have always had an interest in healthcare and in my early teens I was lucky enough to spend time with my uncle working in a community pharmacy. From this experience I gained an insight into the important role pharmacists have in ensuring patients receive the right medication and information.

Can you tell me a bit about your career path as a pharmacist and how it led you to FDB? 
While studying pharmacy, I had several hospital placements which showed me the critical role pharmacists can play in an acute setting, supporting key decision-makers in real-time and positively impacting patient care. These experiences gave me the desire to become a Hospital Pharmacist and shaped my early career. Following graduation, I completed my training year at a London tertiary hospital. From there, I worked as a Junior Hospital Pharmacist rotating through different clinical and surgical specialities before landing a specialist role as an HIV and GUM Pharmacist. Working as a specialist coincided with my first encounter with electronic health records (EHR) and using clinical decision support systems. I discovered that utilisation of CDS tools improved my workflows and ensured that I was able to access the latest patient health records and provide medication advice in real-time. From there, I worked in various senior roles including an operational role leading Patient Services as well as a commissioning pharmacist working closely with NHSE and other hospitals, managing supply and demand of immunoglobulins. 

Once I had obtained my independent prescribing qualification I was on the lookout for a new challenge. One evening I was browsing through jobs on LinkedIn and came across a job post for a Drug Interactions Pharmacist. After years of working as a HIV pharmacist providing advice on the management of drug-drug interactions and being an end-user of different CDS systems, I knew this job was made for me! I applied and, as they say, the rest is history!

This year’s World Pharmacists Day theme is ‘Think Health, Think Pharmacist’, to showcase how vital pharmacists are for policymakers and the future of healthcare. With that in mind, what would you say are the most important skills/ideas that pharmacists can contribute to better health outcomes?
With an ageing population and the rise of chronic diseases, pharmacists in all sectors can have a significant impact on the health outcomes of their patients. As experts on medicines, we are in a unique position to support policymakers and influence the future of healthcare. Pharmacists are already leading on numerous NHS priorities, including medicines optimisation, antimicrobial stewardship, chronic disease management, and medicines sustainability, to name but a few.     

How does your role as a pharmacist at FDB differ from a traditional pharmacy role, and how do you see that impacting patient safety and prescribing at scale?
As someone who moved from hospital pharmacy to clinical informatics at FDB, the biggest shift is from direct, one patient at a time care to building the medication intelligence that clinicians use across many EHRs and health systems.

Previously, identifying a drug–drug interaction on a patient’s chart would result in a single patient intervention. Now I use those insights to author a clinical alert that shapes millions of prescribing decisions, driving safer, more appropriate and more efficient medication use at scale.  

Knowing that the information I have created can impact patient outcomes, including preventing patient harm, is deeply gratifying. 

How does FDB help facilitate the quality and safety of prescribing?
FDB improves prescribing quality and safety by embedding evidence-based drug knowledge and patient-specific clinical decision support directly into EHRs, CPOE, e-prescribing and pharmacy systems.

Some of the ways FDB helps:

• Comprehensive drug knowledgebase: dosing guidance, contraindications, pregnancy/lactation cautions and therapeutic classifications.
• Real-time safety checks at order entry: drug–drug, drug–allergy, drug–disease interactions; duplicate therapy; max dose and frequency.
• Patient-specific warnings: uses labs, vitals, problems, pregnancy status, paediatrics/geriatrics, and (where available) pharmacogenomics to target clinically relevant alerts and reduce noise.
• Alert optimisation: prioritises severe issues and suppresses low-value alerts – reducing alert fatigue while preserving critical warnings.
• Formulary and cost transparency: plan-specific coverage, lower-cost or preferred alternatives, and real-time benefit to improve adherence and affordability.
• Patient education: plain-language, multilingual medication instructions with pictograms and dosing calendars to improve comprehension and safe use after discharge.

What do you think should be prioritised within pharmacy over the next year?
The recent publication of the NHS’s Fit for the Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England focused on three big shifts: hospital to community care, analogue to digital services, and sickness to prevention. I believe the following areas should be prioritised within pharmacy over the next year:

• Expanding the role of community pharmacies in the management of long-term conditions. Ensuring that pharmacy services are linked to a single patient record, which will enable seamless integration into neighbourhood health services.
• Pharmacies supporting prevention and early intervention through the rollout of population health initiatives such as genomics and early risk detection.
• Enhancing digital access and patient empowerment including integration with the NHS App and pharmacists’ adoption of digital tools for medicines optimisation, patient communication and remote monitoring.
• Pharmacy workforce and training is needed to take on expanded clinical responsibilities, including supporting personalised care plans and using digital systems.  

Do you have any advice for individuals seeking a career in pharmacy, especially those looking to move into a more healthcare technology career?
If you are thinking about a career in healthcare, it is always useful to experience working in care settings; consider volunteering at your local hospital or getting a Saturday job at a community pharmacy. As a qualified pharmacist, your experiences enrich your clinical practice and shape your career development. The wider your experiences, the more skills you have to offer and draw from when applying for different roles. With the advancements in technology and expanding pharmacists’ scope of practice, there are an increasing number of new career opportunities. Explore your professional interests and network with pharmacy professionals across all sectors. If you have an interest in healthcare technology, ask to be involved in related projects and build on your expertise. 

A career change can seem daunting at first, but it soon becomes revitalising and deeply fulfilling.