Trust Me, I’m a Pharmacist

This interactive discussion event gives you the chance to quiz healthcare professionals and information providers about the changing front line of healthcare provision.

Whom do you trust with your healthcare: your doctor or your pharmacist? Or do you mistrust them both and search the internet instead? Is this empowering or dangerous? Should you be prescribed antibiotics, and if you are do you always take them? Who’s responsible for your healthcare anyhow?

Two actors set the scene, asking the audience what course they should take with their antibiotics before experts from diverse fields have their say…

Community pharmacist Barry Shooter gives a view of life in the pharmacy today. James King outlines the changing role of pharmacists and considers the future of pharmacy. What situations might patients find themselves in? Choice may be a good thing, but how much can we take before becoming confused?

Joanne Shaw describes how the internet-based Ask About Medicines helps patients navigate their way through a sea of information surrounding their health. How does the internet help to empower patients to take responsibility for their own health?

Robert Bud uses penicillin to illustrate how antibiotics shaped the image of healthcare systems in the past. What influences can we still see today, and how can history inform our present?

Epidemiologist Mark Enright tells the story of antibiotics from a bacterium’s point of view, describing how MRSA ended up with its ‘superbug’ status. Can taking antibiotics more responsibly protect against the development of superbugs?

Finally, are experts today different from experts yesterday? Will we always relate to them on the basis of trust? Jack Stilgoe enlightens us.

Join us for a lively discussion on how our healthcare is changing, responsibility and trust.

Event organised by:
The Science Museum

Speakers

Robert Bud, curator, Science Museum
Mark Enright, epidemiologist, Imperial College
James King, research associate, Helen Hamlyn Centre, Royal College of Art
Joanne Shaw, Chair, Ask About Medicines
Barry Shooter, Community proprietor pharmacist, Barry Shooter Pharmacies
Jack Stilgoe, senior researcher, Demos