Talking Meds - A PrescQIPP podcast
Engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas.
Talking Meds is hosted by Jonathan Underhill who, every two weeks, will chat to a fantastic guest about current medical issues and clinical dilemmas.
Jonathan has a background as a hospital clinical pharmacist but worked for many years at the National Prescribing Centre (NPC) developing innovative ways of teaching therapeutics, evidence-based medicine and clinical decision making to prescribers and their support teams. Until recently, he worked at NICE as a consultant clinical adviser in their Medicines Optimisation Team. He is now Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP.
Jonathan and his guests will discuss topics such as new guidance from NICE on menopause, asthma, depression deprescribing and insomnia; how to tackle penicillin allergy de-labelling.
There will also be a series on ’Sensible prescribing in Older people with Jonathan and Lucy’, with consultant geriatrician and author Lucy Pollock.
PrescQIPP is a Community Interest Company. We operate on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of NHS patients and organisations and help NHS organisations to improve medicines-related care to patients. Find out more here: https://www.prescqipp.info/
Talking Meds - A PrescQIPP podcast
29. Sensible prescribing of nutritional products with Alison Smith
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 Alison Smith about the role of prescribing support dietitians and the sensible prescribing of nutritional products.
Alison has been qualified as a Registered Dietitian for more than 25 years, and since 2013 has worked as a Prescribing Support Dietitian within Clinical Commissioning Groups and latterly an Integrated Care Board. Her role focusses on appropriate prescribing of nutrition products, with a particular remit for prevention, identification and appropriate management of malnutrition using a food-based approach.
Alison is chair of both the Department of Health and Social Care Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances (ACBS) and the PrescQIPP Nutrition Virtual Professional Group. Alison is also a committee member of both the Older People Specialist Group and the Optimising Nutrition Prescribing Specialist Group of the British Dietetic Association (BDA).
In 2021 Alison was made a Fellow of the BDA for her services to the profession and in 2024 was awarded the inaugural Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) Gold Award for Excellence.
In this episode of Talking Meds, Jonathan and Alison talk about the positive impact of having a registered dietitian within a medicines team and some of the particular challenges associated with prescribing of nutritional products.
PrescQIPP and other resources:
Nutrition webkit
Bulletin 261: Oral Nutritional Supplements
Nutrition VPG
Creating a fortified diet recipe book for care home caterers - joint publication with PrescQIPP, BDA and NACC
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 talkingmeds@prescqipp.info
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 help@prescqipp.info and we’ll aim to sort things out for you.
Find out more about PrescQIPP here