Medway school of pharmacy

Although I have been a registered pharmacist since 1977, I started my working life as a scientist, with a PhD in psychopharmacology obtained from the University of Aston, followed by a post-doctoral position in North-West England studying serum levels of antipsychotic and antimuscarinic drugs in schizophrenia.

My interest in researching into the practice of pharmacy started when I moved to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in 1985, where I studied the development of formularies and guidelines, working with Professor James C Petrie, the founder of SIGN (Scottish Inter-Collegiate Guidelines Network).

Since then my research interests have diversified into areas such as advice-giving in community pharmacy, medication review and pharmaceutical care, drug utilization, pharmaceutical needs assessment, adverse drug reaction reporting and public health. I have held academic posts at the Robert Gordon University School of Pharmacy, where I was Reader in Clinical Pharmacy and also at Liverpool John Moores University School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, as Professor of Pharmacy Practice. In both these positions, I lead the Pharmacy Practice Research Group and this is now my main role here at Medway School of Pharmacy.

I have worked in all field s of pharmacy: community, hospital, industry, primary care, strategic level, journalism and academia and currently still hold an honorary contract as an Adviser in Public Health with Sefton Primary Care Trust. My main purpose in this post is to support the development and evaluation of novel services aimed at improving public health, primarily, but not exclusively, in community pharmacy.

I also have strong links with Thailand, where I have been visiting professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahasarakham University since 2007 and have two PhD students working at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Khon Kaen University.

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Overall my research is aimed at improving the experiences of people receiving both pharmaceutical services and medicines, with the aim of gaining maximum benefit and minimising detrimental effects.

Community pharmacy services

My main research activities currently centre around the development and evaluation of novel public health services delivered from community pharmacies. I have been involved in developing services in both Scotland and England, ranging from the provision of free emergency hormonal contraception to screening for risky use of alcohol. Together with colleagues, I have used market research methodologies extensively to explore the views of the public on novel services. Our research repeatedly shows that, while government and pharmacy bodies in the UK strongly advocate the development of these novel services, the public are not aware that pharmacy has a role in public health, viewing them simply as providers of medicines. We believe that pharmacy needs to learn how to market these novel services and that research can inform this, to help change the public’s attitudes towards community pharmacies. This will help to support the government’s agenda of improving public health through early detection and intervention in behaviours likely to lead to poor health.

Adverse drug reaction reporting

Patients’ experiences of using medicines is my other main area of research, in particular adverse drug reactions. I have been studying patients’ perceptions of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) for over ten years and most recently was involved in evaluating patient reporting of ADRs through the UK’s Yellow Card Scheme. The full report is available at: http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/1628.asp This is the largest ever evaluation of patient reporting ever undertaken, which has influenced the European Medicines Agency in its decision to recommend that all EU countries set up patient reporting facilities. Ongoing work is looking at how patients identify ADRs and supporting them to do so.

Medicines optimisation: randomised controlled trials and outcome measures

Although medicines are the most widely used healthcare intervention and obviously have considerable benefits, little attention is paid to the impact which taking medicines can have on everyday lives of those expected to use them long term. Long-term medicines not only carry risks of ADRs, but can also result in the need for substantial effort to organise life around their use. For most people this becomes routine, but for some it creates problems which can have adverse consequences on overall quality of life. I have developed a novel scale to measure the impact of using long-term medicines on quality of life and my research focuses on studying the negative effects of medicines use. While some of my previous research, including two randomised controlled trials has demonstrated that pharmaceutical care  services provided by pharmacists can improve clinical outcomes, future studies will incorporate outcome measures with the hope of demonstrating a reduction in these negative effects.

Current Projects

1. Exploring pharmacy based services promoting safe consumption of alcohol
2. Links between public health policy and practice in community pharmacy
3. Exploring effective methods of behaviour control in nursing homes
4. Identification of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to statins

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Recent publications

• Taylor JC, Krska J, Mackridge AJ. A community pharmacy-based cardiovascular screening service: views of service users and the public. Int J Pharm Pract Accepted Dec 2011
• Krska J, Allison K, Delargy M, Murray L, Smith H. Implementing a statin switching programme in primary care: Patients’ views and experiences. Brit J Clin Pharmacol Accepted Dec 2011
• Saramunee K, Chaiyasong S, Krska J. Public health roles for community pharmacy: contrasts and similarities between England and Thailand. Isan J Pharm Sci 2011
• Hackett A, Krska J. Is it time to regulate over the counter weight loss formulations? (opinion article) Int J Pharm Pract Accepted Oct 2011
• Fortnum H, Lee AJ, Rupnik B, Avery A; on behalf of the Yellow Card Study Collaboration. Survey to assess public awareness of patient reporting of adverse drug reactions in Great Britain. J Clin Pharm Ther 2011 May 18. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2710.2011.01273.x. [Epub ahead of print]
• Tinelli M, Blenkinsopp A, Bond CM on the behalf of the Community Pharmacy Medicines Management Evaluation Team. Development, validation and application of a patient satisfaction scale for a community pharmacy medicines-management service. Int J Pharm Pract 2011; 19: 144–155
• Anderson C, Gifford A, Avery AJ, Fortnum H, Murphy E, Krska J, Bond C on behalf of the Yellow Card Study Collaboration. Assessing the usability of methods of public reporting of adverse drug reactions to the UK Yellow card Scheme. Health Expectations April 2011. Published early on-line. DOI: 10.1111/j.1369-7625.2011.00686.x
• Krska J, Jones L, McKinney J, Wilson C. Medicines safety: experiences and perceptions of the general public in Liverpool. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf  2011; 20(10): 1098-1103.  DOI: 10.1002/pds.2178
• Avery AJ, Anderson C, Bond CM, Fortnum H, Gifford A, Hannaford PC, Hazell L, Krska J, Lee AJ, McLernon DJ, Murphy E, Shakir S, Watson MC. Evaluation of Patient reporting to the Yellow Card Scheme. Final Report. Health Technology Assessment programme 2011; 15: 20. http://www.hta.ac.uk/project/1628.asp

Book chapters

• J Krska, DA Hughes. The evaluation of medicines
  J Krska. Audit
  J Krska. Formularies
  In: Pharmaceutical Practice, Elsevier. Ed: Winfield AJ, Rees J, Smith  (4th edition) 2009. ISBN: 978-0-443-06906-2
• J Krska, J Atherton. Public Health in the UK
  J Krska, P Phillips-Howard. Public health data
  P Knapp, J Krska, CW Morecroft. Risks and benefits
  J Krska, B Godman. Medicines management
  In: Pharmacy in public health Pharmaceutical Press Ed: J Krska. 2010 ISBN: 978-0-85369-879-1
  http://www.pharmpress.com/product/9780853698791/pharmacy-in-public-health
• J Krska, A Cox.  Adverse drug reactions. In: Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Elsevier. Ed: Walker R, C Whittlesea (5th edition) 2011 ISBN: 978-0-443-10285-1

Full list of publications