UCL School of Pharmacy

UCL School of Pharmacy

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Department of Practice and Policy

Head of Department:

Professor Jane Portlock

About the Department:

The goal of the Department of Practice and Policy is to work towards developing safer and more effective medicines for patients.  Our staff members and students are dedicated to improving the health of patients through health services research, focusing on the use of medicines by individuals and by society. Practice and Policy research includes the development of health policy; evaluation of pharmacy services; creation of quality care systems; management of risk; assessment of health technology; appraisal of consumer perspectives on medicines, and the establishment of innovative educational programmes.

We are a diverse group of pharmacists, psychologists and social science researchers who have a wide network of associations with other academic disciplines.  Our Department includes three research centres: the Centre for Behavioural Medicine, which studies medicines-related behaviour and the psychosocial factors influencing the prescribing, taking and effects of medicines; the Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research (jointly with Great Ormond Street Hospital/Institute of Child Health), which studies all aspects of medicines for children and the Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality (jointly with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust).

Our academic collaborators include Imperial College London, London School of Economics, the Institute of Education and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine along with many other universities including Brighton, Nottingham and Birmingham.  The Department also has strong links with several major London hospitals including Bart's and the London NHS Trust, Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Practice and Policy staff are involved in curricular development and teaching across all four years of the MPharm course.  We also provide one of the largest postgraduate programmes in Europe. Our student body includes international pharmacists studying for an MSc in Clinical Pharmacy, International Practice and Policy, to enhance pharmacy services in their native countries.  The department has more than a dozen PhD students and postdoctoral fellows that are involved in individual research projects that have a variety of funders such as the Department of Health, the NHS and the pharmacy industry.

Research Centres 

• Centre for Paediatric Pharmacy Research
• Centre for Behavioural Medicine
• Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality
• FIP Collaborating Centre