Bill Thomson (pharmacist)


Bill Thomson is a pharmacist who was awarded The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia Fred J Boyd award in recognition of his contribution to hospital pharmacy practice.

History

Thomson worked as a hospital pharmacist for more than thirty years, twenty of them as a Director of a Pharmacy department, after which he became executive director of the Victorian Drug Usage Advisory Committee and Victorian Therapeutic Advisory Group and later business manager for the Federal Secretariat of SHPA from 2004-2009.
Thomson served on the Victorian branch of SHPA, as an SHPA Federal Councillor, on the SHPA Board of Censors and as an editor on the Australian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. He was instrumental in the formation of the Council of Australian Therapeutic Advisory Groups.
Bill came to hospital pharmacy after undertaking a Masters in Pharmacology at Melbourne University which involved placement at the Austin Hospital, following which he undertook his pharmacist internship at the Austin. He subsequently developed internship training protocols, and the development of clinical pharmacy practice and pharmacist acceptance into multidisciplinary clinical teams in the 1970s and 1980s.
Bill was awarded the Glaxo Medal of Merit in 1981 for fostering hospital pharmacy as a profession, as assistant editor of the Australian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy, through his involvement in the Federal Conference Coordinating Committee and his contribution to the restructure of the Fellowship course.