Professor Roger Walker
Honorary Professor
- walkerr@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5805
- Fax:
- +44 (0)29 2082 5116
Overview
In early 2011 I became Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales, whilst retaining my academic role in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Qualifications
- PhD in Pharmacology, Aston University in 1979
- Registered as a pharmacist with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 1976
- BPharm degree, University of Bradford in 1975
Biography
Roger Walker was one of the first wave of Teacher Practitioners to be appointed in the UK when he joined the staff at Sunderland Polytechnic (now university) and Newcastle General Hospital in 1979. He introduced clinical pharmacy into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, established clinical pharmacy services within the hospital sector and developed a joint postgraduate course in therapeutics with clinical pharmacologists in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
In 1990 he moved to the post of Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University and honorary clinical pharmacist at the University Hospital of Wales. During tenure of this post he was Director of the Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy, Cardiff University which he subsequently converted into an MSc programme.
In 1994 he was appointed Director of Pharmaceutical Public Health for Gwent Health Authority and Professor of Pharmacy Practice (0.3wte), Cardiff University.
In his service role he was responsible for pharmaceutical services in both primary care and secondary care and primary care prescribing. His academic role continued to focus on the development of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes with a special interest in clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical public health.
When the NHS in Wales was re-organised in 2000 he joined the National Public Health Service for Wales as a Consultant in Pharmaceutical Public Health whilst maintaining his academic contribution at Cardiff University as Professor of Pharmacy Practice.
In early 2011 he became Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales, whilst retaining his academic role in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Honours and awards
In 2004 Professor Walker was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for distinction in the profession and practice of pharmacy.
In 2006 he received the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists silver medal for outstanding services to the health service in the UK.
His contribution to practice research has been recognised by awards such as a Nummum Memorialem from Charles University, Prague (2000) and Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health (2005) of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom.
Professional memberships
Committees and reviewing
Previous committee roles:
- past president of the Science and Education Committee of the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
- past chairman UKCPA Science and Education Committee
- past chairman of the BPC Pharmacy Practice Research Panel
- past chairman of the Health Services Research and Pharmacy Practice Conference.
He has also served on a number of Welsh Office task and finish groups and RPSGB working groups. He was the first pharmacy member to be appointed to the Multicentre Research Ethics Committee for Wales in 1998 and has been a Trustee Director of PharmacyHealthLink for over 7 years.
In 2001 he was appointed by the Minister for Health and Social Services in Wales to be the inaugural Chairman of the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group.
In 2000 he was appointed by the UK Minister for Health to the Medicines Commission and subsequently reappointed to the newly formed Commission on Human Medicines in 2005 and again in 2009.
He has served on a number of working groups of CHM that have looked at the extension of prescribing rights and is currently chairman working group on pseudoephedrine.
Publications
2014
- Du, H. C. T., John, D. N. and Walker, R. 2014. An investigation of prescription and over-the-counter supply of ophthalmic chloramphenicol in Wales in the 5 years following reclassification. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 22(1), pp. 20-27. (10.1111/ijpp.12033)
2010
- Walker, R. 2010. Editorial: Pharmacy research and a fair society. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 18(2), pp. 67-68. (10.1211/ijpp/18.02.0001)
- Walker, R. and Hinchliffe, A. 2010. Prescribing and sale of ophthalmic chloramphenicol following reclassification to over-the-counter availability. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 18(5), pp. 269-274. (10.1111/ijpp.18.05.00046.x)
- Brooks, C. J. et al. 2010. The prescribed duration algorithm: utilising 'free text' from multiple primary care electronic systems. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 19(9), pp. 983-989. (10.1002/pds.2012)
2008
- Dhippayom, T. and Walker, R. 2008. Impact of the reduction of the prescription charge in Wales on the prescribing of non-sedating antihistamines in primary care. Health Policy 87(3), pp. 309-315. (10.1016/j.healthpol.2008.01.006)
2007
- Dhippayom, T. and Walker, R. 2007. Impact of over the counter (OTC) omeprazole on use of prescribed and nonprescribed ulcer-healing drugs [Abstract]. Pharmacy World & Science 29(5), pp. 488. (10.1007/s11096-007-9098-y)
- Dhippayom, T. and Walker, R. 2007. Impact of availability of over the counter chloramphenicol eye drops on the prescribing of chloramphenicol eye preparations. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 16(5), pp. 589-590.
2006
- Walker, R. and Dhippayom, T. 2006. Impact of the reclassification of omeprazole on the prescribing and sales of ulcer healing drugs. Pharmacy World & Science 28(4), pp. 194-198. (10.1007/s11096-006-9031-9)
As a practice based academic Professor Walker's research has focussed on pharmacotherapeutics, pharmacoepidemiology and public health pharmacy.
He has successfully supervised 8 postgraduate students for the award of PhD and 23 students for the award of MPhil, MSc or MPH. His external income since 2003 has been in excess of £600k.
Roger has published over 200 practice based research papers, articles, invited chapters and peer reviewed abstracts.
He is principal editor of the Textbook of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics which was first published in 1994. The fourth edition of the book was published in 2007 and is widely used in academic institutes worldwide.
He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics and the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice.
He has been an external examiner for nine undergraduate or postgraduate taught programmes at different institutes, examiner for 14 external PhD candidates and external assessor for 11 professorial posts in the UK and overseas.
In 2006 Professor Walker was appointed an assessor for the UK Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists.
Research and academic interests
- Pharmaceutical public health
- Pharmacovigilance
- Pharmacoepidemiology