This week we welcome Pharmacy's own National Treasure Professor Mahendra Patel OBE. Mahendra is a multi-award winning pharmacist and academic with professorial roles in a number of universities. He has led research into health inequalities, diabetes and COVID amongst many others. He is a Fellow of both NICE and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and a recipient of their prestigious Charter Medal. He is a passionate and life-long supporter of Leeds United!

Our chat with Mahendra is a fascinating journey through many aspects of his glittering career. As well as his recent work into COVID 19 treatments we chat about his breakthrough research using Statins to highlight health inequalities. We highlight how the face of research has changed as a result of the pandemic and we hear how Gimmo’s mum found a fan of the Podcast in the middle of Anglesey.

Our micro-discussion focussed on unacceptable behaviours between healthcare workers - https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/early/2022/04/14/bmjqs-2021-014157. What is the impact of poor behaviour of healthcare professionals on patient safety? How much of it is down to the individual and how much is down to environment and culture. What can be done about it?

As with all our guests we ask Mahendra to pick a career influencing drug, anthem and book. The book is possibly the biggest one yet…

To get in touch follow us on Twitter @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com

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You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31270100-paul-gimson?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=the-aural-apothecary


Bio
Professor Mahendra G Patel OBE PhD FHEA Alumni Fellow NICE FIPA (India) FRPharmS

Mahendra is a multi-award winning pharmacist and academic recognised by many as a national and international leader with professorial roles in pharmacy at a number of universities including Bradford, Birmingham City, Sussex, Bolton, Wilkes Pennsylvania USA and Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia).

He is a founding member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) for the pharmacy profession and completed two full terms as its elected national pharmacy board, assembly member and Treasurer. His outstanding contributions in advancing pharmacy have been regularly recognised, receiving a Fellowship from the RPS in addition to its prestigious President’s Charter Award. He also led the work in developing its national diabetes policy, Using Pharmacists to help improve care for people with type-2 diabetes. As one of the leading figures within the pharmacy profession he is now a selected member of the newly formed UK Commission on Pharmacy Professional Leadership.

At the University of Oxford, Mahendra remains one of its national leads in the world’s largest and fastest recruiting interventional clinical trials, PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC trials, investigating treatment options for COVID-19 in the community and helping recruitment to be inclusive and diverse, with work reported in the Lancet.

Mahendra cherishes a longstanding relationship with NICE with his early pioneering work involving students from medical, dental, pharmacy and nursing faculties is a national programme across 40 universities. He became the first pharmacist to gain a fellowship through NICE (2013).

Mahendra remains an active member of the South Asian Health Foundation (SAHF) for many years and has served as its CEO (England). He was central to the team that won the BMJ Team Diabetes Awards involving community outreach work around preventing type-2 diabetes in South Asians (2016).

Mahendra is a valued advocate and advisor to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) for many years. His initial work with them led to the development of a national educational tool kit, the Healthy Hearts Tool Kit, which received the BMA Patient Information Award (2010). Mahendra has also been a judging panel member for BHF, and other awarding bodies including NICE, SAHF, C+D and HSJ.

Internationally, Mahendra has worked extensively with the Indian pharmacy profession and became the first to be appointed International Fellow of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association (2019). As an inspiring educator, he is also Teaching and Faculty Member of the UNESCO Department of Education’s International Programme of Bioethics. In Lebanon, he was rewarded for his contributions and was appointed as its International Honorary Ambassador by Order of Lebanese Pharmacists (OPL). He was also the first to be appointed Global Ambassador of the University of Bradford.

Mahendra is highly active in promoting issues of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the NHS. In 2019, he received Outstanding Service Award for the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) and is now BAPIO Pharmacy Lead. He is a formal advisor on EDI to many national pharmacy organisations including Professional Advisor to the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer NHSE, and EDI Lead for the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, Lloyds Pharmacy UK, and Well Pharmacy.

Mahendra was recognised in the 2022 Queen’s New Years Honours for his services and contributions to pharmacy nationally and internationally, and made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE). He has since received the highly distinguished Pharmacy Business Ram Solanki Lifetime Achievement Award.