Faces of PharmSci: Tarek Hussein

What is your academic background and why is this area of research important?

I am a registered pharmacist who is currently completing my Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, under the supervision of Dr. Lisa McCarthy, a leading expert in deprescribing and medication optimization. Prior to that, I completed a BPharm, a Doctor of Pharmacy and a Master of Business Administration.

My research sits at the intersection of social prescribing, deprescribing, and community pharmacy practice in Ontario. Social prescribing connects patients to non-clinical community resources, such as social groups, arts programs, and volunteer opportunities, to address the social determinants of health that often underlie problematic medication use.

This area matters because prescribing cascades, where a drug is prescribed to treat the side effect of another drug, are a pervasive and under-recognized problem in primary care. Addressing these cascades requires looking upstream at their root causes, including social isolation, loneliness, and unmet social needs. Community pharmacists, as accessible primary health care professionals, are uniquely positioned to identify these needs and initiate both deprescribing and social prescribing simultaneously. My research aims to define and operationalize this integrated model of care.

What led you to your current Supervisor’s lab/research group?

I was drawn to Dr. Lisa McCarthy’s research group because of her internationally recognized work in deprescribing, a field that questions the reflexive assumption that more medication is always better. Her research hub, deprescribing.org, has produced seminal evidence on reducing inappropriate polypharmacy, and this resonated deeply with my clinical experience as both a community and hospital pharmacist.

As a practicing pharmacist, I repeatedly see how patients’ medication experiences and their life circumstances are intertwined, with social circumstances, isolation, financial stress and housing instability often falling outside the traditional clinical gaze. Dr. McCarthy’s focus on patient-centred evidence-based medication optimization gave me the academic home to pursue a research question I had been developing from this direct patient care experience: what if pharmacists could simultaneously deprescribe and prescribe a social intervention?

I also hold an adjunct appointment at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Ottawa and serve as Chief Development Officer of the International Social Prescribing Pharmacy Association (ISPPA) and Director of Content Portfolio at the Canadian Association of Pharmacy for the Environment (CAPhE). These roles that have reinforced my conviction that pharmacy must evolve beyond the dispensary to address the full spectrum of patient need.

What are some of the challenges you had to overcome within your research?

One challenge has been navigating the discovery that a research group in the United Kingdom, the SPiDeR project, had been pursuing a closely adjacent idea to my own. Finding that someone else had arrived near the same intellectual territory is a humbling and disorienting experience for any researcher, particularly when you have invested significant energy developing what felt like an original contribution. Rather than viewing this as a setback, I worked to reframe it: the existence of parallel inquiry is not a threat to originality, but evidence that the field itself is converging on an important and underexplored question. The task became one of careful positioning, understanding precisely where my work diverges, what it adds, and how to situate it honestly within an emerging body of scholarship.

Another challenge has been balancing an active clinical practice (community and hospital pharmacy), several national academic leadership roles, and a rigorous graduate research program which has required significant discipline in prioritization and time management.

How do you see your current research playing a role in your career?

My research interests are drawn from my experiences as a pharmacist who has practiced in many settings. I am notoriously curious and committed to improving systems I encounter. I decided to pursue research training to enhance my ability to shape pharmacy practice and policy on a global scale. If community pharmacists can be formally recognized as practitioners who integrate social prescribing and deprescribing, the implications for patient quality of life, health care system burden, and medication safety are substantial.

I am also deeply committed to pharmacy education and knowledge translation. My roles at the International Social Prescribing Pharmacy Association (ISPPA) and the Canadian Association of Pharmacy for the Environment (CAPhE) are extensions of my commitment to moving evidence from scientific journals into classrooms and practice. I intend to hold an academic appointment alongside a clinical practice, training the next generation of pharmacists to think upstream, not just about what is in the blister pack, but about the social world that shaped why medications were prescribed in the first place.

What do you like to do when you are not working on research?

Outside of research and clinical work, I find balance through hiking with my wife and caring for our cat, Gomez. I am also a writer. I co-wrote Take Me Back to Cairo with my wife, a novel that follows the journey of an international pharmacist settling into life in Canada, told in a light and humorous voice. It is, in many ways, a story we both lived. I have also recently completed another co-writing project with a writer friend, which should see the light of day sometime next year.

I am involved in ongoing professional development through pharmacy advocacy and academic networks, which I find energizing rather than burdensome, though I recognize the importance of deliberate rest and renewal.

I still commute between Kingston and Toronto, and I find both cities charming in their own distinct ways. Kingston offers a quieter, historic warmth, while Toronto pulses with the kind of energy that keeps a researcher perpetually curious. I have made a home in both.