Although I have been a registered pharmacist since 1977, I started my working life as a scientist, with a PhD in psychopharmacology obtained from the University of Aston, followed by a post-doctoral position in North-West England studying serum levels of antipsychotic and antimuscarinic drugs in schizophrenia. My interest in researching into the practice of pharmacy started when I moved to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1985, where I studied the development of formularies and guidelines, working with Professor James C Petrie, the founder of SIGN (Scottish Inter-Collegiate Guidelines Network). Since then my research interests have diversified into areas such as advice-giving in community pharmacy, medication review and pharmaceutical care, drug utilization, pharmaceutical needs assessment, adverse drug reaction reporting and public health. I have held academic posts at the Robert Gordon University School of Pharmacy, where I was Reader in Clinical Pharmacy and also at Liverpool John Moores University School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, as Professor of Pharmacy Practice. In both these positions, I lead the Pharmacy Practice Research Group and this is now my main role here at Medway School of Pharmacy. I have worked in all fields of pharmacy: community, hospital, industry, primary care, strategic level, journalism and academia and also held honorary contracts in Public Health with Grampian Health Board and Sefton Primary Care Trust. I maintain strong links with Thailand, where I was visiting professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University between 2007 and 2012 and have several MSc/PhD students working at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Khon Kaen University.

Overall my research is aimed at improving the experiences of people receiving both pharmaceutical services and medicines, with the aim of gaining maximum benefit and minimising detrimental effects. Community pharmacy services My main research activities currently centre around the development and evaluation of novel public health services delivered from community pharmacies. I have been involved in developing services in both Scotland and England, ranging from the provision of free emergency hormonal contraception to screening for risky use of alcohol. Together with colleagues, I have used market research methodologies extensively to explore the views of the public on novel services. Our research repeatedly shows that, while government and pharmacy bodies in the UK strongly advocate the development of these novel services, the public are not aware that pharmacy has a role in public health, viewing them simply as providers of medicines. We believe that pharmacy needs to learn how to market these novel services and that research can inform this, to help change the public's attitudes towards community pharmacies. This will help to support the government's agenda of improving public health through early detection and intervention in behaviours likely to lead to poor health. Adverse drug reaction reporting Patients' experiences of using medicines is my other main area of research, in particular adverse drug reactions. I have been studying patients' perceptions of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) for over ten years and most recently was involved in evaluating patient reporting of ADRs through the UK's Yellow Card Scheme. The full report is available at:http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/1628.asp This is the largest evaluation of patient reporting ever undertaken, which has influenced the European Medicines Agency in its decision to recommend that all EU countries set up patient reporting facilities. Ongoing work is looking at how patients identify ADRs and supporting them to do so, both in interactions with health professionals and through the Yellow Card Scheme.