Rate My Professor Richard McNeill

Dr. Richard McNeill serves as a Clinical Training Fellow in the Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine within the Health Sciences Division. He is part of the Clinical Pharmacology Research Group at the University of Otago, Christchurch. McNeill holds the qualifications BSc, MBChB, FRACP, FRAChPM, and MMedSc. As a Medical Doctor at Canterbury District Health Board, he works in the Departments of Clinical Pharmacology and Palliative Care. His academic and research career focuses on applying clinical pharmacology in palliative and hospital settings. Research specializations include polypharmacy and deprescribing in palliative care, therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacovigilance of agents such as cyclizine for nausea and vomiting, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for pain in hospice care, pharmacological management of persistent breathlessness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, inpatient gout management with serum urate testing and allopurinol dosing, clinical decision support alerts for duplicate prescribing, micronutrient-drug pharmacokinetic interactions, drug metabolism phenotyping in severe COPD, and patient information leaflets as medication counselling aids.

McNeill has authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications advancing evidence-based practices in clinical pharmacology and palliative medicine. Notable works include 'Polypharmacy in Palliative Care: Two Deprescribing Tools Compared with a Clinical Review' (2021), 'Drug Metabolism in Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Phenotyping Cocktail Study' (2021), 'Cyclizine Pharmacovigilance in Hospice/Palliative Care: Net Effects for Nausea or Vomiting' (2022), 'Current Pharmacological Strategies for Symptomatic Reduction of Persistent Breathlessness - A Literature Review' (2022), 'Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Pain in Hospice/Palliative Care: An International Pharmacovigilance Study' (2023), 'Optimising Interruptive Clinical Decision Support Alerts for Antithrombotic Duplicate Prescribing in Hospital' (2024), 'Inpatient Management of Gout: Serum Urate Testing and Allopurinol Dose Adjustment' (2025), 'Investigation of a Broad-Spectrum Micronutrient Formulation as a Possible Precipitant of Pharmacokinetic Micronutrient-Drug Interactions' (2025), 'Routine Therapeutic Drug Monitoring of Dabigatran: Experience at a Tertiary Center' (2020), and 'A Randomised Controlled Trial of Patient Information Leaflets as a Medication Counselling Aid' (2019). These contributions draw on real-world data from prospective cohort studies, pharmacovigilance analyses, and pharmacokinetic investigations to enhance medication safety, efficacy, and quality use in vulnerable patient populations.