Speaker

Sion is a clinical-academic whose work focuses on applying behavioural science to develop theory and evidence-based approaches to address medicines optimisation challenges. During his PhD, he developed the CompreHensive geriAtRician-led MEdication Review (CHARMER) intervention.  This behaviour change intervention is designed to facilitate geriatricians and pharmacists to proactively deprescribe medicines with more risks than benefits for older people in hospitals.

CHARMER is being evaluated in a £2.4m National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) programme across 24 hospitals, 150 geriatricians and pharmacists and 42,000 patients, making it the largest deprescribing trial in the world. While an increase in the number of medicines stopped demonstrates the CHARMER intervention successfully changes behaviour, there is a need to show improvements in clinical, patient and health system outcomes to inform whether the NHS should adopt an innovation. Sion is therefore evaluating the effects of the CHARMER intervention on 90-day hospital readmissions (primary outcome measure), quality of life and NHS resource use.

Alongside his primary research, he leads building deprescribing research capacity and co-founded the Network of European Researchers in Deprescribing to foster an international, coordinated approach to advancing safely stopping medicines.