DrMouna Sawan

My research focus is to ease the burden of medication-related harm in older people, including people with dementia, a significant national and international health challenge. My work involves building an evidence base and developing interventions that are feasible and scalable to improve health care delivery and support older people and their families to partner with health care providers to achieve medication safety.

My pioneering research program was the first to codesign novel medication management resources for people with dementia and carers. These resources addressed a critical gap in that existing medication management resources lacked accessibility, relevance, and lived experience input as identified through a cross-sectional survey, systematic review, and scoping review that I led.

I also led a research program that was the first to demonstrate how organisational culture - the shared values, beliefs and practices of aged care home (ACH) staff- drives the overuse of psychotropic medications, particularly antipsychotics which have a 20% higher risk of death in ACH residents.