Emma Baker (clinical pharmacologist)

Last updated

Emma Baker

FRCP
NationalityBritish
Education University of Edinburgh
Known for
Medical career
ProfessionPhysician
Institutions
Sub-specialties
ResearchCommonly prescribed medicines
Notable works The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing (2015)

Emma Harriet Baker FRCP is a British professor of clinical pharmacology and consultant physician in internal medicine at St George's Hospital, London. She has a specialist interest in people who have multiple medical conditions at the same time and take several medications, with a particular focus on lung disease. She is director of the UK's first BSc in clinical pharmacology, clinical vice president of the British Pharmacological Society and training programme director at Health Education England.

Contents

Baker was executive editor of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology for 10 years. Her research led to the publication of The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing (2015 and 2019) after identifying the most important and commonly prescribed drugs in the NHS.

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, she was a frontline healthcare professional on respiratory wards. She is listed as a principal investigator in the Cambridge COVID-19 trials.

After being elected best teacher 1998–2002 by her medical students, her hands feature alongside those of Edward Jenner, John Hunter and others in the sculpture titled "Handing on Skills, Ideas and Ideals", unveiled in 2002 at St George's to celebrate its 250-year anniversary of medical training.

Medical career

Emma H. Baker graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1988. [1] During a junior work placement at Salford's Hope Hospital, she met Leslie Turnberg (later president of the Royal College of Physicians), who persuaded her to enter an academic career and pursue a doctorate. [2] She subsequently earned her PhD in 1996 from Manchester University. [1] [3]

She developed a specialist interest in people who have multiple medical conditions at the same time and take several medications, with a particular focus on lung disease. [1] [4] Before being appointed consultant in internal medicine at St George's Hospital in 2000, [1] she was one of professor Joe Collier's lecturers. [5]

She became the director of the UK's first BSc in clinical pharmacology. [2] [4] She pointed out in an interview with the British Medical Journal in 2020, that not doing a BSc as a medical student herself reduced her choices in medicine. [2] She is also clinical vice president of the British Pharmacological Society and is Health Education England's training programme director. [2]

Writing

For a decade she was an executive editor of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology . [6]

Her research led to identifying 100 most important and commonly prescribed drugs in the NHS. After being asked by students to provide a concise and practical collection of these medicines, she co-authored The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing , the first edition appearing in 2015 and a second in 2019. [7] [8] [9]

Her research has also included looking at the effect of raised glucose levels in people with COPD. [10] [11]

COVID-19

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, she was a frontline healthcare professional on respiratory wards. [2] In December 2020 she organised her clinical pharmacology BSc students, in their second year of university, to be trained to perform mass COVID-19 testing for fellow students to allow them to go home for Christmas. [12] She is listed as a principal investigator in the Cambridge COVID-19 trials. [13]

Awards and honours

Undergraduate students at St George's elected Baker as best teacher for 1998 to 2002. [14] As a result, her hands feature alongside those of Edward Jenner's, John Hunter's, Robert Boyd's, Joe Collier's and others in an English walnut sculpture by Elona Bennett titled "Handing on Skills, Ideas and Ideals", unveiled in the presence of the Queen on 2 December 2002 at St George's to celebrate 250 years of medical training at the medical school. [14] [15]

In 2003 she received the National Teaching Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and has received further undergraduate teaching prizes from her students. [3]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hypnotic</span> Drug whose use induces sleep

Hypnotic, or soporific drugs, commonly known as sleeping pills, are a class of psychoactive drugs whose primary function is to induce sleep and to treat insomnia (sleeplessness).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrocodone</span> Opioid drug used in pain relief

Hydrocodone, also known as dihydrocodeinone, is a semisynthetic opioid used to treat pain and as a cough suppressant. It is taken by mouth. Typically it is dispensed as the combination acetaminophen/hydrocodone or ibuprofen/hydrocodone for pain severe enough to require an opioid and in combination with homatropine methylbromide to relieve cough. It is also available by itself in a long-acting form under the brand name Zohydro ER, among others, to treat severe pain of a prolonged duration. Hydrocodone is a controlled drug: in the United States a Schedule II Controlled Substance.

<i>British National Formulary</i> Pharmaceutical reference book for the UK

The British National Formulary (BNF) is a United Kingdom (UK) pharmaceutical reference book that contains a wide spectrum of information and advice on prescribing and pharmacology, along with specific facts and details about many medicines available on the UK National Health Service (NHS). Information within the BNF includes indication(s), contraindications, side effects, doses, legal classification, names and prices of available proprietary and generic formulations, and any other notable points. Though it is a national formulary, it nevertheless also includes entries for some medicines which are not available under the NHS, and must be prescribed and/or purchased privately. A symbol clearly denotes such drugs in their entry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acetylcysteine</span> Medication used to treat overdose of paracetamol

Acetylcysteine, also known as N-acetylcysteine (NAC), is a medication that is used to treat paracetamol overdose and to loosen thick mucus in individuals with chronic bronchopulmonary disorders like pneumonia and bronchitis. It has been used to treat lactobezoar in infants. It can be taken intravenously, by mouth, or inhaled as a mist. Some people use it as a dietary supplement.

<i>The Lancet</i> Peer-reviewed general medical journal

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also one of the world's highest-impact academic journals. It was founded in England in 1823.

<i>British National Formulary for Children</i>

BNF for Children (BNFC) is the standard UK paediatric reference for prescribing and pharmacology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lopinavir</span> Chemical compound

Lopinavir is an antiretroviral of the protease inhibitor class. It is used against HIV infections as a fixed-dose combination with another protease inhibitor, ritonavir (lopinavir/ritonavir).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iprindole</span> Atypical tricyclic antidepressant

Iprindole, sold under the brand names Prondol, Galatur, and Tertran, is an atypical tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) that has been used in the United Kingdom and Ireland for the treatment of depression but appears to no longer be marketed. It was developed by Wyeth and was marketed in 1967. The drug has been described by some as the first "second-generation" antidepressant to be introduced. However, it was very little-used compared to other TCAs, with the number of prescriptions dispensed only in the thousands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benzoctamine</span> Chemical compound

Benzoctamine is a drug that possesses sedative and anxiolytic properties. Marketed as Tacitin by Ciba-Geigy, it is different from most sedative drugs because in most clinical trials it does not produce respiratory depression, but actually stimulates the respiratory system. As a result, when compared to other sedative and anxiolytic drugs such as benzodiazepines like diazepam, it is a safer form of tranquilizing. However, when co-administered with other drugs that cause respiratory depression, like morphine, it can cause increased respiratory depression.

Malcolm VandenBurg is a British doctor involved in drug research, sexual health, medicolegal advice and stress management.

Obstetric anesthesia or obstetric anesthesiology, also known as ob-gyn anesthesia or ob-gyn anesthesiology, is a sub-specialty of anesthesiology that provides peripartum pain relief (analgesia) for labor and anesthesia for cesarean deliveries ('C-sections').

Joseph Gavin Collier is a British retired clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor of medicines policy at St George's Hospital and Medical School in London, whose early research included establishing the effect of aspirin on human prostaglandins and looking at the role of nitric oxide and angiotensin converting enzyme in controlling blood vessel tone and blood pressure. Later, in his national policy work, he helped change the way drugs are priced and bought by the NHS, and ensured that members of governmental advisory committees published their conflicts of interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Vallance</span> British medical doctor

Sir Patrick John Thompson Vallance is a British physician, scientist, and clinical pharmacologist who has worked in both academia and industry. He served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of the United Kingdom from 2018 to 2023. On stepping down, he became chair of the Natural History Museum in London.

Cara Tannenbaum is a Canadian researcher and practicing physician in the fields of geriatrics, women's health and gender research. Since 2015, Tannenbaum has served as the Scientific Director of Canadian Institutes of Health Research's Institute of Gender and Health. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada on November 17, 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Müge Çevik</span> Physician, infectious disease researcher and science communicator

Müge Çevik is a physician who is an infectious diseases researcher and science communicator at the University of St Andrews. Her research considers HIV, viral hepatitis, emerging infections and tropical infections in developing countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Çevik was an advisor to the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland and the World Health Organization, and is a member of New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group - an expert committee of the UK Department of Health advising Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

The treatment and management of COVID-19 combines both supportive care, which includes treatment to relieve symptoms, fluid therapy, oxygen support as needed, and a growing list of approved medications. Highly effective vaccines have reduced mortality related to SARS-CoV-2; however, for those awaiting vaccination, as well as for the estimated millions of immunocompromised persons who are unlikely to respond robustly to vaccination, treatment remains important. Some people may experience persistent symptoms or disability after recovery from the infection, known as long COVID, but there is still limited information on the best management and rehabilitation for this condition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Taylor (professor)</span>

David Taylor FFRPS FRPharmS is a British professor. He is the head of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Clinical Academic Group within King's Health Partners. Taylor has been lead author and editor of the Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines in Psychiatry since 1994. In 2014, Taylor was named as one of the top 100 clinical leaders in the UK National Health Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shabir Madhi</span> South African physician and professor

Shabir Ahmed Madhi, is a South African physician who is professor of vaccinology and director of the South African Medical Research Council Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, and National Research Foundation/Department of Science and Technology Research Chair in Vaccine Preventable Diseases. In January 2021, he was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand.

<i>The Top 100 Drugs</i> 21st-century book about pharmacology

The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing is a pocket-size medical manual focusing on the most commonly prescribed medicines by the British National Health Service (NHS). It was first published by Churchill Livingstone, Elsevier, in 2014, revised in a second edition in 2018, and again in 2022 in a third edition. It is authored by four clinical pharmacologists from St George's Hospital, London; Andrew Hitchings, Dagan Lonsdale, Daniel Burrage and Emma Baker.

Nilima Arun Kshirsagar FACCP, FRCP, FNAMS FNAS is an Indian clinical pharmacologist who developed and patented liposomal amphotericin B and its drug delivery system in 1993. She is the former dean of King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College. She is the national chairperson in clinical pharmacology at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and president of the South Asian chapter of the American college of clinical pharmacology. She is a Member of the WHO Committees on Product development and Drug statistics Methodology.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Professor Emma Baker". St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones, Helen (2 November 2020). "Reviving clinical pharmacology: Emma Baker". BMJ. 371: m4166. doi: 10.1136/bmj.m4166 . ISSN   1756-1833. PMID   33139250.
  3. 1 2 "The Top 100 Drugs – 2nd Edition". www.elsevier.com. Archived from the original on 25 March 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 Bennett, Frances; Shah, Neha; Offord, Robin; Ferne, Robin; Sofat, Reecha (2020). "Establishing a service to tackle problematic polypharmacy" (PDF). Future Healthcare Journal. 7 (3). Royal College of Physicians: 208–211. doi:10.7861/fhj.2019-0048. PMC   7571722 . PMID   33094229.
  5. ↑ Collier, Joe (15 March 2020). ""and finally some words of warning …."". The Joe Collier Blog. Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  6. ↑ "Professor Emma Baker FBPhS". Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  7. ↑ "Elsevier: The Top 100 Drugs, 2nd Edition: Hitchings, Lonsdale, Burrage & Baker". www.elsevier.ca. Archived from the original on 21 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  8. ↑ Chiedozie, Chiamaka; Murphy, Mark E; Fahey, Tom; Moriarty, Frank (March 2021). "How many medications do doctors in primary care use? An observational study of the DU90% indicator in primary care in England". BMJ Open. 11 (3): e043049. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043049 . ISSN   2044-6055. PMC   7929869 . PMID   33653750.
  9. ↑ Begum, Abida; Patel, Urvasi (3 December 2018). "Nine essential resources for preregistration trainees". The Pharmaceutical Journal. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  10. ↑ "Sweeter But Not Better". www.sgul.ac.uk. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  11. ↑ Mirrakhimov, Aibek E. (27 October 2012). "Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and glucose metabolism: a bitter sweet symphony". Cardiovascular Diabetology. 11 (1): 132. doi: 10.1186/1475-2840-11-132 . ISSN   1475-2840. PMC   3499352 . PMID   23101436.
  12. ↑ Bayley, Sian (4 December 2020). "London uni students running Covid tests so their mates can go home for Xmas". MyLondon. Archived from the original on 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "Researchers & Investigators – Cambridge Covid-19 Trials". www.camcovidtrials.net. Archived from the original on 23 March 2021. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  14. 1 2 Ferriman, Annabel (7 December 2002). "Sculpture symbolises passing on of clinical skills". British Medical Journal . 325 (7376): 1322. doi:10.1136/bmj.325.7376.1322. ISSN   0959-8138. PMC   1124800 . PMID   12468475.
  15. ↑ Wildgoose, Jane (7 December 2002). "Handled with care" (PDF). The Lancet. 360 (9348): 1895. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)11783-1. S2CID   54384869.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.