Nagham Ailabouni

Dr Nagham Ailabouni is a clinician-researcher and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow (EL1) at the University of Queensland, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences.

They identify as a person from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (CALD) and is of Palestinian Jordanian descent. Dr Ailabouni's main research interests include implementation science, co-design and consumer engagement in person-centred deprescribing, quality use of medicines in older people, people living with dementia and their carers.

They completed their undergraduate Pharmacy degree at the University of Otago and is an Australian registered pharmacist with clinical pharmacy experience in various healthcare settings including hospital, aged care and community pharmacy. Thereafter, Dr Ailabouni conferred their PhD titled "Deprescribing in Older New Zealanders" from the University of Otago, Dunedin in 2018. Their PhD program was the first to explore deprescribing in New Zealand.

Dr Ailabouni is the Public Engagement Subcommittee Chair of the leading deprescribing network in Australia, the Australian Deprescribing Network and the co-chair of the American Geriatrics Society Polypharmacy and Deprescribing Special Interest Group. They are the Early Career Representative of the School of Pharmacy representing early career researchers within their institution since 2022.

Professionally, Dr Ailabouni was competitively selected as an observer for the Australian Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, Medication Safety Oversight Committee, since 2023. They were elected and served as the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) Otago Branch in 2014-2016. They were elected once again and served as the President of the PSNZ South Canterbury Branch in 2016-2018.

Dr Ailabouni enjoys being part of early career researchers' professional development and growth. They are currently supervising and mentoring 6 PhD candidates in Australia and New Zealand and looks forward to growing their supervision roles.