Robert James

Digital Pharmacy Expert Advisory Group (DP EAG)

Rob qualified as a pharmacist in 2016 after working in community pharmacy since he was 16 years old. As a person who grew up during a renaissance of technology and the internet, he took a keen interest in how technology was used in healthcare and how that intersected with pharmacy services.

In 2018, Rob started his PhD in Cardiff University, investigating the factors affecting engagement to the Discharge Medicines Review (DMR) service in Wales. As the DMR service is supported by technology, much of the research has focussed on how the pharmacy profession engages with technologies at care transitions, including identifying barriers and facilitators to their adoption. The research process included over 24 hours of focus groups with pharmacy professionals about their perception and critique of technologies and their implementation, providing a unique level of insight to how the profession engages with digital technologies. Rob has regularly disseminated key research outputs to a varied selection of key stakeholder groups to influence system and policy changes; including representatives from community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, Welsh Government and Digital Health & Care Wales.

From these experiences, Rob brings knowledge of technology-adoption in pharmacy practice that spans from research to policy and importantly, to the intended adoptees of that technology. Using this experience, he hopes to ensure technologies affecting pharmacy professionals are designed with the end-user in mind with clear implementation, adoption and dissemination strategies allowing the technology to be used for optimal patient-centred care.