Symposium 13: A new international collaboration toadvance medication safety in people withneurodegenerative diseases: NeuroGEN
Moderators
Ian Wong, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Professor Ian Wong is currently the Head of Department ofPharmacology and Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong. He is also theholder of Lo Shiu Kwan Kan Po Ling Endowed Professorship inPharmacy. He is also a co-director of Centre for Medicines Optimisation
Research and Education at University College London Hospital.
As an academic pharmacist with expertise in pharmacoepidemiology andbig data research, Professor Wong has over 250 publications withpublication in JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet
Psychiatry, Lancet Infectious Disease, Lancet Digital Health,BMJ. According to Clarivate Analytics' Essential Science Indicators,
Professor Wong has been a top 1% scholar in 2015 to 2018.
Professor Wong received the Chemist and Druggist's Pharmacy Practice Research Medal in2004 for his research in paediatric medicines. In recognition of his work in paediatric medicines
research, Professor Wong was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College ofPaediatrics and Child Health in 2011, and Fellowship of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in2012. He was the coordinator of the ADDUCE consortium which was funded by the European
Commission to evaluate the long-term safety of methylphenidate. He was a member of theNICE ADHD guideline development group in 2009 and 2018 respectively.
Simon Bell, Monash University, Australia
Professor Bell is Director, Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Facultyof Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. He is
also Adjunct Professor of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy, University ofEastern Finland. Professor Bell leads an enthusiastic team ofresearchers developing and implementing new services to optimise theuse of medicines among older people. He is an Australian National
Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Dementia Leadership
Fellow, a Chief Investigator of the NHMRC Cognitive Decline
Partnership Centre and NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in
Frailty and Healthy Ageing. Simon consults widely for government andnon-government organisations, including the Australian Government Department of Health,Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services and a range of aged careprovider organisations. His research has attracted considerable attention in the professionaland lay media. He was recipient of the Alzheimer’s Australia Resthaven Dementia ResearchAward in 2013 and ASCEPT Denis Wade Johnson & Johnson New Investigator Award in2014.

SpeakersIan Wong, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Professor Ian Wong is currently the Head of Department ofPharmacology and Pharmacy, University of Hong Kong. He is also theholder of Lo Shiu Kwan Kan Po Ling Endowed Professorship inPharmacy. He is also a co-director of Centre for Medicines Optimisation
Research and Education at University College London Hospital.
As an academic pharmacist with expertise in pharmacoepidemiology andbig data research, Professor Wong has over 250 publications withpublication in JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet
Psychiatry, Lancet Infectious Disease, Lancet Digital Health,BMJ. According to Clarivate Analytics' Essential Science Indicators,
Professor Wong has been a top 1% scholar in 2015 to 2018. Professor Wong received theChemist and Druggist's Pharmacy Practice Research Medal in 2004 for his research inpaediatric medicines. In recognition of his work in paediatric medicines research, Professor
Wong was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child
Health in 2011, and Fellowship of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2012. He was thecoordinator of the ADDUCE consortium which was funded by the European Commission toevaluate the long-term safety of methylphenidate. He was a member of the NICE ADHD
guideline development group in 2009 and 2018 respectively.
Simon Bell, Monash University, Australia
Professor Bell is Director, Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Facultyof Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. He is
also Adjunct Professor of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy, University ofEastern Finland. Professor Bell leads an enthusiastic team ofresearchers developing and implementing new services to optimise theuse of medicines among older people. He is an Australian National
Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Dementia Leadership
Fellow, a Chief Investigator of the NHMRC Cognitive Decline
Partnership Centre and NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence inFrailty and Healthy Ageing. Simon consults widely for government andnon-government organisations, including the Australian Government Department of Health,Victorian Government Department of Health and Human Services and a range of aged careprovider organisations. His research has attracted considerable attention in the professionaland lay media. He was recipient of the Alzheimer’s Australia Resthaven Dementia ResearchAward in 2013 and ASCEPT Denis Wade Johnson & Johnson New Investigator Award in2014.
Wallis Lau, University College London, UK
Wallis graduated from The University of Hong Kong in 2011 with a BSc(Hons) in statistics and undertook a PhD in pharmacoepidemiology in2013-2017 at the same university to investigate the safety andeffectiveness of direct oral anticoagulants. The results of her PhD were
published in JAMA, Gastroenterology, Heart Rhythm, and Journal ofThrombosis and Haemostasis. During her post-doc training at UCL she
used UK electronic health records to investigate the potential for
repurposing trazodone to prevent dementia, of which the findings were
published in PLoS Medicine. In 2019, she was appointed to a lectureship at UCL School ofPharmacy where she continues her research to investigate the effects of medicines used in
cardiovascular diseases and mental health.

Jenni Ilomaki, Monash University, Australia
Jenni graduated with a Master of Science (Pharmacy) in 2004. In 2000,
Jenni was instrumental in establishing Finland’s first drug information
centre KLIK. In 2006-2007, Jenni was a visiting scholar at the Universityof Florida Department of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy.
Jenni then returned to Finland and undertook a PhD in alcohol
epidemiology at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at
the University of Eastern Finland. During her PhD Jenni published thefirst application of a marginal structural model in alcohol epidemiology.
For this landmark work the Finnish Epidemiological Society named Jenni
the Young Epidemiologist of the Year 2011. The Finnish Graduate
School of Pharmaceutical Research recognised Jenni’s work by awarding her the Best Thesis
in Pharmaceutical Sciences 2010-2011. Jenni was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at theUniversity of South Australia from 2011-2014, during which time she analysed data andprepared reports on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs andNPS MedicineWise. Jenni has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed scientificjournals and obtained AUD $2.5 million in grant funding. Jenni is the Chair of thePharmacoepidemiology Special Interest Group of the Australasian Society of Clinical andExperimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists (ASCEPT).
Edward Lai, National Cheng Kung University, TaiwanDr. Edward Lai is an Assistant Professor for School of Pharmacy, Instituteof Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, at National Cheng
Kung University in Taiwan. His research interests include drug safety,
comparativeeffectivenessandinternational
multi-databases
pharmacoepidemiologic studies. He was a chair of the Asian
Pharmacoepidemiology Network, and currently works on international
projects for psychiatric medications, biologic agents as well as oncologictreatments. He receives governmental grants for developing
pharmacoepidemiologic and analytic methods to protect data privacy formultiple databases studies. He is also working with Taiwan Drug Relief Foundation to improvedrug safety, signal detection and post-marketing surveillance using electronic healthcare
databases.