Mrs Joy Wingfield (assistant pharmacy superintendent, Boots the Chemists and a former head of ethics at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society) has been appointed professor of pharmacy law and ethics at Nottingham university.
A statement issued by Boots on June 29 said that her appointment was a part-time one and that the new chair had been established "to help equip pharmacists to meet today's ethical and legal demands in pharmacy practice." Initially, the appointment is for three years, starting in the autumn.
Mrs Wingfield said: "The boundaries between different health care disciplines are coming down and pharmacists are increasingly part of the whole patient-care team. Technological and scientific advances, such as the internet and gene therapy, raise issues that challenge existing approaches to the legal and ethical aspects of pharmacy practice."
She qualified as a pharmacist in 1971, and gained a master's degree in philosophy in 1989 and a master's degree in law in 1990. She was involved with founding the Pharmacy Law and Ethics Association in 1997. She worked for the Society from 1976 to 1991, first as an inspector and, subsequently, as head of the ethics division. She became assistant pharmacy superintendent at Boots the Chemists in 1991.