Delivering medicines optimisation through strategic leadership

This thesis describes the author's journey as a researcher, a practicing pharmacist, and a leader and how they have delivered on the principles of medicines optimisation (MO). The first two chapters of the thesis provide a background on the author's career, areas of research interest, introduction to the literature and an overview of the research methodologies utilised. The thesis then proceeds to focus on the author's three key research themes of improving the quality of medicines reconciliation (MR) at hospital admission and at transfer of care, ensuring the safe and effective use of medicines in patients with mental health and learning disabilities and embedding the principles of MO through a multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach. On the theme of MR, the author undertook one of the largest studies of its kind that provided an in depth understanding of the quality of medicines related information provided at discharge from hospital and how this information was acted upon in primary care. The author also developed a best practice resource and toolkit for MR that was endorsed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) which has been widely used nationally to improve the quality of MR at hospital admission. On the theme of mental health and learning disabilities, the author has developed and evaluated new innovative roles for pharmacists that have been cited as exemplar models for other organisations to follow, scoped opportunities for pharmacists and other health professionals to improve the physical health of people with a severe mental illness (SMI) and promoted the role of pharmacy in mental health practice. On the theme of embedding the principles of MO through a MDT approach, the author's collaborative leadership style is described throughout the thesis and is reflected in the breadth of professional journals that the author has published in. The scope of this theme was to empower collaborative working between pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to optimise MO and therefore patients' health outcomes. In conclusion, the thesis demonstrates the author's contribution to the MO agenda at a local, regional, and national level and how they translated strategic policy decisions into operational deliverables through a collaborative leadership style. It clearly outlines the importance of research and collaborative working to develop practical solutions and tools for wider implementation of MO and MR across care pathways to enhance medication safety.