The Professor Lucy Wan Outstanding Pharmacist Award is the highest award PSS gives to Singapore pharmacists who have excelled in their area of pharmacy practice.

This year, the recipient of this prestigious award is Dr Lou Huei-Xin, Director of the National Pharmacy Programme Management Office, Ministry of Health.

A Trailblazer in Clinical Pharmacy

Dr Lou obtained her basic Pharmacy Degree with Merits and thereafter started her career as a Pharmacist with the Singapore General Hospital. During her 13 years in Singapore General Hospital, Dr Lou specialised in kidney and solid organ transplant, renal and critical care medicine and started a pharmacy-run clinic for kidney and solid organ transplant and renal failure patients. In fact, she was the first pharmacist to be designated with a Clinical Pharmacist title in SGH.

Dr Lou was also active in clinical research and clinical trials comparing the safety and efficacy of different immunosuppressant regimens, mycophenolic acid, sirolimus, tacrolimus, alemtuzumab pharmacokinetic, dosing and genetic polymorphism. Together with the clinicians and pharmacy team, she established the dosing of mycophenolic acid, conversion of mycophenolic acid to azathioprine regimen and dosing of immunosuppressants in the Singapore kidney transplant population. She has authored and co-authored a number of papers published in international pharmacy and transplant journals. Dr Lou has indeed established the role of pharmacist in the renal and solid organ transplant community in Singapore, paving the way for the other pharmacists in these areas.  Since the establishment of these services in SGH, there have been establishment of similar services in the other hospitals.

An Astute Leader

During her stint with SGH, Dr Lou obtained her M Sc (Clinical Pharmacy) and Pharm D. At the same time, she was leading the inpatient pharmacy team and had groomed a number of young pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. In addition, she was the chief preceptor for the pre-registration pharmacists and had also been active in training other healthcare professional in these clinical areas. In fact, she is still one of the invited guest clinicians for the Kidney Dialysis Foundation annual training course for nurses and she is doing the lecture on a voluntary basis.

Upon completion of planning for the centralization of the inpatient pharmacy, Dr Lou left SGH to join the Health Sciences Authority of Singapore (HSA) in 2007 whereby she oversaw the registration of new and generic drugs in Singapore. Dr Lou represented Singapore in the Global Corporation Group and Regulator Forum, International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) and the APEC Life Science Innovative Forum Regulatory Steering Committee. Together with the team, she established a channel for Singapore HSA evaluators to participate in the development of the new ICH guidelines. This was the first time that non-ICH countries participated in the development of ICH guideline.

She also led the development of cell and tissue therapy regulation and worked with international regulatory bodies in the area of benefit-risk analysis. In 2012, Dr Lou was tasked to oversee the pre-market control of all health products including medical devices. She stayed with the team through the public uproar about the regulation of medical devices and delay in approval.  

An Advocate for Pharmacy Profession and Transformation

Missing the excitement of clinical practice, Dr Lou joined MOHH to champion practice related initiatives namely promotion of medication reconciliation and improving allergy reporting. Her team took a holistic approach to these issues by looking at them from the patients’ and healthcare professionals’ perspectives. In the area of medication reconciliation, Dr Lou and team proposed the concept of Patient’s Medication List (PML) to empower patients in knowing their medications and leveraged on the national systems for the sharing of these information with healthcare professionals and patients/caregivers.  Since the introduction of PML in 2015, the pharmacy community has begun to embrace the concept.

Dr Lou is also overseeing the National Pharmacy Strategy and together with the team, she has translated findings from a study on the landscape into a 10-year strategy that will transform the delivery of pharmaceutical care and medication management.

With Selfless Contributions to PSS

Dr Lou has been a very active member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore (PSS) since 1995, contributing as member in the various chapters, and committees. She joined the PSS Executive Council from 2005 to 2009. Dr Lou also helped to shape several Singapore Pharmacy Congresses where she contributed significantly to the scientific programme. In 2016, she steered the organising committee of the 26^th Singapore Pharmacy Congress to another successful congress as the Chairperson.

It is with great pleasure that PSS awards this highest accolade to Dr Lou, a trailblazer and visionary leader.