Overview

Tom Kallis is a senior clinical pharmacist, with experience of working across several sectors of primary care in Devon and Cornwall. He qualified from King’s College London and started his career in community pharmacy, before moving into general practice. Alongside this, he was the vice chairman and project pharmacist for Devon Local Pharmaceutical Committee, later becoming the Training and Development lead for the organisation. He has clinical interests in the management of depression, anxiety, chronic pain and insomnia in primary care, as well as delivering structured medication reviews for patients with complex polypharmacy. He also supports patients with the deprescribing of medicines with dependence forming characteristics (benzos, opioids and z-drugs) in the general practice setting. Tom has extensive experience with media and public engagement, frequently promoting the role of pharmacists and community pharmacy in print news articles, radio and TV.

Tom was one of the first pharmacists nationally to be awarded a ‘PhD for Primary Care Clinicians’ fellowship in 2023, a Wellcome-funded doctoral grant through the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. Alongside his academic role, he maintains his clinical practice in an honorary capacity at Saltash Health Centre.

Qualifications

MPharm(Hons), Master of Pharmacy (2012) King’s College London
PgCert, Independent Prescribing (2019) University of West England
MSc, Clinical Pharmacy Practice (2023) Keele University

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Research

Research interests

Tom is interested in how pharmacists in general practice handle clinical uncertainty in the context of complex polypharmacy. The studies in his PhD, PPhoCUs: Polypharmacy, Pharmacists and Clinical Uncertainty, will use clinical observations, interviews, survey questionnaires, focus groups and a consensus exercise to understand:

• How do practice-based pharmacists approach clinical uncertainty when conducting reviews with patients who have complex polypharmacy?
• What influences clinical pharmacists’ decision making when encountering clinical uncertainty in with patients with complex polypharmacy?
• In the context of clinical uncertainty, what is the patient’s experience of care and person-centred decision making delivered by clinical pharmacists in general practice?
• In what way do the current education pathways for pharmacists in primary care meet the perceived learning needs for pharmacists managing clinical uncertainty in practice?
• How might the standards for ongoing clinical education for pharmacists in GP practice settings (considering both clinical supervision and formal education) be further improved to support better patient-centred decision making in the context of clinical uncertainty?

Tom is also interested in clinical education, ethical decision making, organisational cultures in healthcare, medicines optimisation and the evolving role of pharmacists in primary care.

Research projects

PPhoCUs: Polypharmacy, Pharmacists and Clinical Uncertainty

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Publications

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