How do you influence the prescribing habits of an entire country? This is the task of NHS England’s National Clinical Director of Prescribing Professor Tony Avery. We chat to Tony about this new, groundbreaking leadership role and techniques used to influence and improve prescribing practice across a whole nation. In addition to this role Tony is a practising GP, a professor of primary health care at the University of Nottingham and an NIHR Senior Investigator.

In 2012, Tony and his team developed ‘Pharmacist-led Information Technology Intervention for Medication Errors’ — or PINCER — project, which was rolled out nationally to general practices in England to tackle hazardous prescribing from 2018.

In our micro-discussion, we talk about the recent Chief Medical Officer’s annual report 2023: health in an ageing society https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-2023-health-in-an-ageing-society Professor Chris Whitty's report recommends actions to improve quality of life for older adults and prioritise areas with the fastest growth in older people. We discuss the concept of ‘Lifespan vs Healthspan’ and what that means for prescribing in an increasingly specialist medical model .

As with all of our guests, Tony shares with us a Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book that has influenced his life. Be prepared for an Aural Apothecary first as Tony surprises us with his choice of song…

Join us for our next live show in Bordeaux for the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists Congress! https://www.eahp.eu/congresses/programme

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Our latest blog posts talks about our first live public show - ‘Music, Memories and Medicines’ - have a read here; https://www.theauralapothecary.com/blog/the-three-apothecaries-music-medicines-and-memories/.

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