Rate My Professor Justin Turner

Dr. Justin Turner is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University. He earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy and a Master of Clinical Pharmacy from the University of South Australia, followed by a PhD from Monash University in 2016. With over 20 years of experience providing patient care and leading research in aged care, primary care, tertiary care, and academia across Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, Turner previously served as a postdoctoral fellow and then Assistant Professor at the University of Montreal and the Centre de recherche, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. He holds affiliated researcher status with CRIUGM and Laval University in Quebec, Canada, and has been Co-Director of the Canadian Deprescribing Network since 2021. At Monash, he coordinates the Professional Practice I and II units in the first year of the Pharmacy degree, supervises PhD students, and is accepting new PhD candidates.

Turner's research addresses the question of how to improve medication use in older adults, with expertise in deprescribing, quality use of medicines, implementation science, health policy, and polypharmacy. His contributions include leading the population-level implementation of patient-empowered deprescribing via SaferMedsNL.ca in Newfoundland and Labrador and a Canadian government-funded randomized controlled trial educating patients on opioid benefits and harms during the opioid crisis. He has delivered invited presentations to clinicians, researchers, and governments on translating evidence into practice, worked with patients to promote awareness of medication-related harm, and provided interviews for local, national, and international TV, radio, and podcasts. Turner received the New Investigator Award in 2024 and was named South Australian Pharmacist of the Year in 2008. His scholarly impact is evidenced by over 1,800 citations and 93 publications. Key works include "What do clinical practice guidelines say about deprescribing? A scoping review" (2025, BMJ Quality & Safety), "Government Direct-to-Consumer Education to Reduce Prescription Opioid Use: A Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial" (2024, JAMA Network Open), "Deprescribing Benzodiazepine Receptor Agonists in Older Adults and People With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review" (2025, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society), "Patient self-guided interventions to reduce sedative use and improve sleep: the YAWNS NB Randomized Clinical Trial" (2024, JAMA Psychiatry), and "Gabapentinoids and risk of hip fracture" (2024, JAMA Network Open).