Essentials of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy

Sophiya Benjamin, MBBS, MHSc, FRCPC

Dr. Benjamin is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences at McMaster University and the Schlegel Chair for Mental Health in Aging. She is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of GeriMedRisk. Dr. Benjamin’s work focuses on implementing and integrating evidence informed solutions at a system level for common challenges in older adults such as polypharmacy and insomnia. She was the inaugural Co-Medical Director at the Provincial Geriatrics Leadership Ontario and serves as a system leader in geriatric psychiatry. She completed her training in general adult and geriatric psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and her master's in health sciences through the Duke-National Institute for Health (NIH) Clinical Research Training Program. Her clinical practice is in the Waterloo region of Ontario.

Joanne Ho, MD, FRCPC, MSc

Dr. Ho completed medical school at the University of British Columbia and residencies in internal medicine, geriatric medicine and clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto. She obtained her Masters of Science in clinical epidemiology at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ho also completed the CIHR Drug Safety and Effectiveness Cross-Disciplinary and University of Toronto Department of Medicine Eliot Phillipson Clinician-Scientist training programs. She is an active medical staff member of the Waterloo Regional Health Network in Kitchener, ON where she provides inpatient geriatric medicine, internal medicine and clinical pharmacology consultation services. She is an examiner with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology Examination Committee. Dr. Ho also created GeriMedRisk, an interdisciplinary telemedicine service available to clinicians who need geriatric clinical pharmacology and psychiatry consultations.

Alina Lalani, RPh, ACPR, PharmD, BCGP

Alina Lalani is a Clinical Practice Specialist/Leader at Unity Health Toronto coordinating clinical practice and education for the Department of Pharmacy at St. Joseph's Health Centre. She is also adjunct lecturer at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and a board certified geriatric pharmacist (BCGP). She coordinates clinical practice for the pharmacists in the inpatient pharmacy and is a clinical pharmacist in both palliative and geriatric medicine. As a clinical practice leader, she spends her time developing pharmacists professionally and clinically through projects and direct mentorship. As education coordinator since 2012, she coordinates rotations for all the students at her site, conducts orientation and student development activities, and takes on students in the geriatric unit. She works closely with the faculty of pharmacy at the University of Toronto, coordinating efforts for student support on site for struggling students and for preceptor development, which has led to her recognition by the University of Toronto and the Arbor award in 2023 (awarded to former alumni with recognized voluntary efforts contributing to the University). She is passionate about professional practice research and quality improvement initiatives centered on deprescribing and polypharmacy reduction in the older patient population, developed with the aid of students on non-direct patient care rotations. Her participation and enthusiasm in clinical practice research has led to multiple abstracts and posters, which she has presented at conferences over the years.

Beverly-Ann Oliver, RPh, PharmD, HBSc

Beverly-Ann graduated from Queens university with an HBSc and went on to pursue a PharmD from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. She is currently practicing as a pharmacist with GeriMedRisk and North Simcoe Muskoka Specialized Geriatric Services with both roles focused on the care of older adults. As part of her role, she provides education on medication use in older adults such as potentially inappropriate medications, anticholinergics, BPSD and antipsychotics within her team at NSM SGS as well as to external groups including CSHP, NSM SGS practice shorts, Community Paramedicine, and Nurse Practitioner groups.