Dr Andrew Hitchings is a clinical academic working for St George’s, University of London, and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. In his academic practice, he is a Reader in Clinical Pharmacology, a medical specialty focusing on safe and effective use of medicines.
He contributes to policy, research and guidelines work, both locally and nationally. However, the central pillar that fuses his roles is education. He draws on experiences from clinical practice and guideline production to maximise the authenticity of the learning and assessment provisions for students. He seeks to equip them to deal with the complexities, uncertainties and practical demands of real-world healthcare when they emerge as newly-qualified doctors and pharmacists.
His university role is in the Centre for Clinical Education and the Centre for Clinical Pharmacology, where he is Chief Examiner for Medical Finals and Sub-theme Lead for Clinical Pharmacology in the MBBS Medicine degree. He also contributes to the St George’s/Kingston University Pharmacy programme, embedding practical prescribing into teaching, and advising on assessment and professionalism issues.
He holds several external roles in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, notably including with the UK Prescribing Safety Assessment. He is co-author of successful textbooks that model his pedagogical approach, including ‘The Top 100 Drugs’, which has also been translated into Portuguese and German. Clinically, he practices as a Consultant in Neurointensive Care, caring for critically-ill patients with severe brain injuries, neurological diseases and other critical illnesses. Alongside clinical and academic work, he contributes substantially to population-level decisions on the use of medicines as Chair of the South West London Joint Formulary Committee and a member of technology appraisal and clinical guidelines committees for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).