Talking Meds - A PrescQIPP podcast

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today, your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, talks to Dr Dimitri Gavriloff about sleep disorders and the use of non-medicine interventions to help with this. There has been an issue for some time with the overprescribing of medicines for insomnia with many high profile campaigns to help us reduce the inappropriate use of hypnotics like benzodiazepines and 'z-drugs'. One intervention that has gained prominence in the past few years is the use of CBTI – cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia.
Dimitri is a Clinical Psychologist and Sleep Medicine Specialist with extensive experience in assessing and treating a wide range of sleep disorders. He has experience of running an NHS tertiary care sleep medicine service and now works at the University of Oxford’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, dividing his time between academic and research roles. 
Alongside his academic work, he is the director of Sleep Well Oxford, a sleep clinic and sleep medicine consultancy, and is a consultant in sleep medicine for Big Health Ltd.
PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode;
Bulletin 352. Insomnia
Clinical webinar - Digital CBT for Insomnia - February 2024
Clinical Masterclass - March 2024 - Insomnia: getting back to better sleep
Other resources mentioned in this episode;
NICE Decision Aid - should I stop my benzodiazepine or z-drug?
Spielman's 3 Ps model of insomnia
The Sleep Charity
The ‘5 principles’ of good sleep health
A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to [email protected]

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.
The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here

Welcome to the first of two episodes of Talking Meds where we are going to be talking about Genomics-informed medicines optimisation!
As this may well be a phrase that is as unfamiliar to you as it was to me until recently, we have two guests to help explain what it is and why it is of great importance to us all, either as clinicians or patients.
Our first guest, Vicky Chaplin, is the Senior Clinical Lead for the Genomics Unit at NHS England, overseeing the multidisciplinary healthcare professional team and their associated workstreams. She is part of the Chief Pharmacist In England, David Webb’s Senior Leadership Team and Pharmacy Advisory Group – to ensure the work is coordinated across pharmacy and medicines developments across the NHS and government. 
Vicky has worked in various sectors of pharmacy in the NHS and has also worked as a Medical Advisor in the pharmaceutical industry. She is qualified as an independent prescriber, specialising in diabetes care. 
Joining Vicky is Paul Selby, a Consultant Pharmacist in Genomics, working at East Genomics. Paul has worked in several trusts, but developed his interest in genomics whilst looking after patients with rare and inherited diseases at Cambridge University Hospital Foundation Trust.
In this first episode we introduce the concept of genomics-informed medicines optimisation, and discuss what is happening at both National and Local level in the NHS on this.
PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode;
Pharmacogenomics webinar series
Clinical Masterclass - November 2023 - Pharmacogenomics: Is it time for implementation into clinical practice?
Other resources mentioned in this episode;
Genomics in Pharmacy - Genomics Education Programme
Spotlight: Clopidogrel pilot project
UKCPA Genomics community
CERSI-PGx - ADVANCING PHARMACOGENOMICS IN THE UK
Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) deficiency - NHS England GeNotes
NICE Early Value Assessment - Genedrive MT-RNR1 ID Kit for detecting a genetic variant to guide antibiotic use and prevent hearing loss in babies
A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to [email protected]

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.
The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here

Welcome to this episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. In this, the first episode for 2026, we welcome back three former guests to look ahead to 2026 and they give us their thoughts on what might happen in terms of medicines and prescribing.
Philip Newland-Jones  joined us back in April 2025 for Episode 16 where we discussed the management of obesity. Philip is a Consultant Pharmacist in Diabetes and Endocrinology and is the Clinical Director of the Diabetes and Endocrine service at University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Minna Eii joined us in May 2025 for Episode 18 to tell us about her work tackling the sustainability challenges in medicines.  Minna is a hospital pharmacist based in the northeast of England. She is the co-founder of Pharmacy Declares and the lead author of the RPS Greener pharmacy toolkit.
And who could ever forget when the fantastic Dr Lucy Pollock joined us for the Talking Meds series on sensible prescribing in older people with Jonathan and Lucy? If you haven't listened then you have missed a trick! Lucy  is a consultant in care of older people in Somerset and an acclaimed author of two fabulous books!
We hope you enjoy this episode and have a fantastic 2026! Once again, thanks to all of you for listening and for your suggestions and feedback. Please keep that coming!
PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode;
Bulletin 340. Sustainability in medicines optimisation
Bulletin 375. Inhaler carbon footprint
Polypharmacy and deprescribing
Other resources mentioned in this episode;
Pragmatic prescribing to reduce harm for older people with moderate to severe frailty | British Geriatrics Society
Obesity Medicines; evidence, implementation and practicalities - Philip Newland-Jones
A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to [email protected]

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.
The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here

Welcome to this episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. In this last episode for 2025, we welcome back three former guests to look back on the year in terms of medicines and prescribing.

Prof Adam Todd joined us in July 2025 for episode 23 where we discussed his work on how community pharmacy can buck the inverse care law.
Dr Deb Gompertz joined us back in June 2025 for episode 21 to talk about her 'Show me your medicines' campaign.
Hadeel Mohammed joined us in March 2025 for episode 14 where we discussed the importance of mentoring to encourage personal progress and, specifically, the ENIGMA scheme that she helped set up.
We have a had a very successful year at PrescQIPP and particularly with the Talking Meds podcast. This will be our 34th episode and bearing in mind most podcasts only last around 3 months before they stop, we're pleased to have had over 13,000 downloads since we started. Thanks to all of you for listening and for your suggestions and feedback. Please keep that coming!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Pragmatic prescribing to reduce harm for older people with moderate to severe frailty
Core20PLUS5 Framework: Reducing healthcare inequalities among older people
The Positive Pharmacy Care Law Revisited
ENIGMA Mentoring Initiative - ENhancing leadershIp amonGst ethnically diverse feMale phArmacy professionals [ENIGMA]
'Show me your meds please?' campaign materials
Previous episodes with the guests interviewed today:
Episode 14. The importance of mentoring to encourage personal progress with Hadeel Mohamed
Episode 21. Show me your medicines with Dr Deb Gompertz
Episode 23. How community pharmacy can buck the inverse care law with Prof Adam Todd
A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to [email protected]

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.
The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today, your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, talks to Katie Smith about the PrescQIPP IMPACT Tool.  Katie is the Director of Clinical Quality at PrescQIPP and is responsible for quality assuring all the PrescQIPP resources before publication. 

Katie has worked for 29 years as a pharmacist in community pharmacy, as a GP practice pharmacist and medicines information pharmacist. She has worked with PrescQIPP since their inception in 2010 and joined the team substantively in April 2018. 
Outside of work she enjoys reading, cooking and watching sport, particularly the trials and tribulations of Ipswich Town FC, as well as being mum to her  9 year old adopted son.

PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode:
Bulletin 268: IMPACT
IMPACT webinar
Using IMPACT for a medication review
Other resources mentioned in this episode:
GP Evidence
STOPP-START v3 - CGA Toolkit Plus
A new episode of Talking Meds will be available every other Friday.
If you have feedback or suggestions for future topics and guests please submit them to [email protected]

PrescQIPP is funded by the NHS for the NHS, and our aim is to improve medicines-related care for patients. We do this by producing high quality evidence-based resources and training, and by facilitating networks between NHS organisations and professionals.
The majority of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals across the UK can access our resources by registering and logging on to our website. If you have any difficulty accessing the website you can email [email protected] and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.

Find out more about PrescQIPP here