Our team

Haifa Lyster - SOTPA Chair

PhD, FRPharmS, FFRPS

Position: Consultant Pharmacist – Cardiothoracic Transplantation & MCS Institution: Royal Brompton & Harefield hospitals, part of GSTT London, UK

Dr Lyster is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and its’ Faculty. She is the consultant pharmacist in Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support at Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals, managing the pharmaceutical care of VAD/ECMO and heart and lung transplant patients since 1998. Dr Lyster is on the board of Directors of the International Society of Heart & Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), having held several leadership roles within the society.

She co-founded and is the Chair of the Solid Organ Transplant Pharmacy Association with colleagues from renal and liver transplantation delivering an annual conference since 2013 supporting pharmacists in SOT, membership and attendance of pharmacists included those from other European countries. She has completed a research doctorate developing Pharmacokinetic models of antifungal agents in critically ill patients with ECMO. Haifa’s other areas of interest and research include personalisation of dosing in special populations, therapeutic drug monitoring of anti-infectives and immunosuppressants and the association of tacrolimus variability and patient outcomes post-transplant

Caroline Ashley - SOTPA Treasurer

BPharm, MSc, FFRPS, FRPharmS, IPres

Principal Pharmacist - Renal Transplantation

c.ashley@sotpa.co.uk

Caroline Ashley is the Lead Specialist Pharmacist for Renal Services at the Royal Free Hospital, with nearly 30 years renal experience. Her major areas of interest are transplantation and auto-immune renal disease.

She was involved in the development of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines on Immunosuppression in Renal Transplantation, Renal Anaemia, and Acute Kidney Injury.

She is the co-editor of both the Renal Drug Handbook and the Introduction to Renal Therapeutics, and sits on the editorial board of the British Journal of Renal Medicine. From 2014-2017 she was the co-Chair of the Intervention workstream of the ‘Think Kidneys’ National AKI Programme. 

She was the Chair of the UK Renal Pharmacy Group from 1996 to 2017, and was made Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, UCL School of Pharmacy in 2011. Her outside interests include driving steam trains, and playing the cello in a symphony orchestra.

Alison Orr - SOTPA Vice Chair

MRPharmS, DipClinPharm, MSc, IPres

Lead Pharmacist - Liver Transplantation

a.orr@sotpa.co.uk

As the Principal Pharmacist of hepatology and transplant services at King’s College Hospital, Alison has a wealth of experience having worked in liver transplant for many years, providing clinical pharmacy services to the transplant ward and outpatients.

Her key duties involve in-ward rounds, guideline development and training for junior staff. Patient adherence and education is a key area of interest and examining the influence pharmacists can make. 

She regularly provides training to healthcare staff and is involved in number of areas of research. More recently she has become a committee member of the International Liver Transplant Society as she continues to fly the flag for transplant pharmacists and the key role they provide.

Dane Howard - SOTPA Secretary

Advanced Clinical Pharmacist

d.howard@sotpa.co.uk

Dane is an Advanced Clinical Pharmacist working at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, specialising in solid organ transplantation. Responsible for the clinical areas of renal transplant, liver transplant, and the National Organ Retrieval Service, he has played a key role in service development across all three areas since taking up the post in 2016.

Currently pursuing a Master's in Social Sciences Research for Healthcare, Dane is committed to advancing knowledge and research within pharmacy and transplantation. He currently holds the position of Research and Development Co-Chair of the Renal Pharmacy Group and is keen to push research in the area amongst colleagues within pharmacy.

He has contributed to multiple regional and national projects, including the repatriation of immunosuppression prescribing and subsequent service delivery for transplant patients in the West Yorkshire locality and played a role in the national implementation of Imlifidase for antibody incompatible transplants.

In 2018, Dane received his Independent Pharmacist Prescriber qualification and currently runs post-renal transplant outpatient clinics, ensuring patients receive the best possible care and outcomes from the medicines they take in this setting

Andrea Devaney - SOTPA Immediate Past Chair

BPharm, DipClinPharm, MSc, FFRPS, FRPharmS, IPres,

Consultant Pharmacist - Transplantation & Renal Services

a.devaney@sotpa.co.uk

Andrea Devaney is Consultant Pharmacist in Transplantation and Renal Services responsible for the renal pharmacy team delivery of a clinically led, patient-centred medicine management service to transplant and renal patients at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has worked within this fascinating field for many years.

Her area of expert clinical practice is solid organ transplantation. She has spent her professional career championing the role of the pharmacist in transplantation. Her clinical interests centre on best patient and medicine outcomes and she has led and developed pharmacy practice in transplant assessment and out-patient clinics. Associated interests include medication adherence and medicine management strategies and generic immunosuppression, enhanced as a non-medical prescriber.

She was pharmacy co-lead for NHS England Renal (initially Renal Transplant pharmacy lead) Clinical Reference Group from 2013 to 2022. As a long-standing committee member of UK Renal Pharmacy Group (1991–2023), latterly being Chair and National Liaison Officer, she has been involved in many national medicine-related initiatives. She remains pharmacy representative for National Renal Workforce planning. She was a founding member and Immediate past Chair of Solid Organ Transplant Pharmacy Association. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and its Faculty

Patricia Ging - SOTPA Newsletter editor

BPharm, MPSI, M.Sc, FFRPS MRPharmS                          

Transplant/Pulmonary Hypertension Pharmacist (Chief 2)

Patricia is currently the transplant and pulmonary hypertension pharmacist in the Mater Hospital, Dublin, ROI. This role involves responsibility for all aspects of medication use in the National Heart and Lung transplant programme and the National Pulmonary Hypertension Unit, including medication review for in-patients and outpatients, provision of medicines information and pharmaceutical care planning for these complex patients as part of the multidisciplinary team.

In 2014, Patricia was promoted to Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmacy RCSI and is also heavily  involved with the International Society of Heart and Lung transplant, having recently served on the programme committee for the 2016 and 2017 meetings.