Rate My Professor Carla Dillon

Dr. Carla Dillon is a Professional Practice Fellow in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Otago. She holds qualifications of BScPharm, ACPR, and PharmD. Prior to joining Otago in 2017 from Newfoundland, Canada, she served as Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, since October 2001. At Otago, Dr. Dillon heads the pharmacy skills programme, leads development of the modern curriculum, and operationalised simulated practice sessions in the Virtual Professional Practice Laboratory. This facility features a central debrief area and ten independent pods to support practical training. She also acts as Student Support Co-ordinator and Disabilities Officer for pharmacy students.

Dr. Dillon emphasises patient-centred care, communication skills, and culturally safe practice in pharmacy education. She has developed learning environments where students feel safe to make mistakes, aligning with the school's focus on diverse perspectives and community engagement. Her educational scholarship interests include assessment and skill development. Previous research addressed bariatric surgery outcomes through the Newfoundland and Labrador Bariatric Surgery Cohort Study, covering health care costs, medication use changes, weight loss predictors, and inflammatory biomarkers post-laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. Key publications include 'Rapid Reduction in Use of Antidiabetic Medication after Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: The Newfoundland and Labrador Bariatric Surgery Cohort (BaSCo) Study' (2015), 'The Newfoundland and Labrador Bariatric Surgery Cohort Study: Rationale and Study Protocol' (2016), 'Pre-operative and post-operative changes in CRP and other biomarkers sensitive to inflammatory status in patients with severe obesity undergoing laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy' (2017), 'Comparison of Pharmacist managed anticoagulation with usual medical care in a family medicine clinic' (2011), and 'Patients’ and physicians’ satisfaction with a pharmacist managed anticoagulation program in a family medicine clinic' (2010). Recent works cover competency assessors in assessing international pharmacy graduates (2021) and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community pharmacy services in New Zealand. Her 14 publications have 187 citations on ResearchGate, contributing to pharmacist-managed care and interprofessional education. Dr. Dillon awards student prizes including the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand Prize.