7.6 Professor Lauren Walker - The trials and tribulations of a Clinical Pharmacologist

What is a Clinical Pharmacologist? Who better to tell us than Professor Lauren Walker, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics and Honorary Consultant in General Internal Medicine at Liverpool University. Lauren is a leading researcher in multimorbidity and AI-driven healthcare and plays a key role in early-phase clinical trials. We chat about her role in ‘First in Human’ trials - what are they, what are the risks and why are they so important? And how does this work reach across to her clinical role which focuses on multimorbidity and polypharmacy. We discuss the role that AI may play in predicting polypharmacy and the development of DynAIRx - an Artificial Intelligence being designed to support medicines optimisation on multimorbid patients. It's a Robotic version of Steve the Chemist!Our micro-discussion continues with the theme of clinical trials. How can we ensure they are representative of the populations they are supposed to be treating. Is it ever ethical to test new drugs on elderly and frail patients? ‘The current status of inclusion of older groups in evaluations of new medications: Gaps and implementation needs to fill them' https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38600697/As with all of our guests, Lauren shares with us her Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book that has influenced her career or life. Fans of pharmacology will not be disappointed. Check out Lauren's impressive full bio here, with further details of all of her research: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/people/lauren-walkerThis week we also discuss Steve’s impressive TV debut where he describes the role of a Clinical Pharmacist to none other than Professor Green on BBC Morning Live. This is a must watch for anyone who wants to understand this role and the impact of polypharmacy. A new career beckons… You can watch it here: https://www.rpharms.com/about-us/news/details/polypharmacy-featured-on-bbcs-morning-live. Our website is https://www.theauralapothecary.com/You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here;  https://litalist.com/shelf/view-bookcase?publicId=KN6E3O  To get in touch follow us on Bluesky and X @auralapothecary or email us at [email protected] . Don’t forget to rate us and comment wherever you have got this podcast from.