Dr Theo Raynor has been appointed professor of pharmacy practice, medicines
and their users at Leeds university.
Dr Raynor said that the new chair had been created to provide a focus for teaching
and research in pharmacy practice and medicines use across health disciplines
at the university. This would build on existing links in the city, notably with
the pharmacy department at the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS trust and Leeds
health authority.
Dr Raynor was a clinical pharmacist and hospital pharmacy manager in Leeds in
the 1980s and completed a PhD thesis on medicines information for patients in
1991. He moved to the university in 1995 to head its newly created division
of academic pharmacy practice.
He explained that the new chair arose from an awareness of three current issues:
the increasing emphasis on empowering patients; the philosophy of concordance
in medicines-taking; and the emergence of primary care groups, with their multidisciplinary
approach to care, including the prescribing and taking of medicines.