Associate Professor Kellie Charles
Sydney Pharmacy School
Kellie has a PhD in Pharmacology from University of Sydney (2004 – Investigation of relationships between hepatic drug metabolism, inflammation and cancer). She completed postdoctoral research in the field of cancer and immunology pharmacology and was involved in 3 international clinical trials investigating the regulation of inflammatory pathways regulating ovarian cancer growth and piloting new immune modulatory drug treatments for ovarian cancer at Barts Cancer Institute and Queen Mary, University of London, UK.
Kellie is a passionate medical educator and has established a new research program aimed to investigate educational innovations and approaches to improving medical students and junior doctor's preparation for prescribing in the hospital and community setting. This research has two major areas; design and evaluation of high quality education project to improve acquisition of knowledge and skills required for safe prescribing and 2) understanding the role of inter-professional team work for promotion of a medication safety culture within pre-registration degrees and in the workplace.
Prescribing competencies
Pharmacology of inflammatory, immunomodulatory and cancer drugs
Pathology of cancer
Interprofessional teaching
2 Honours Project in Sydney Pharmacy School
Project 1: The role of inter-professional teams in improving medication safety
Project Summary: Medication safety is a critical international and national health concern as evidenced by the WHO 3rd Patient Safety Call – Medications without harm and Australia’s 10th National Health Priority. Inter-professional teamwork and communication is essential for the management of medications throughout the patient journey. Previous literature has shown that inter-professional teamwork has assisted medical students to develop new skills associated with prescribing. Using a mixed methods approach, this project will investigate the how, why and when does inter-professional teamwork improve medication safety within the earliest stages of prescribing competency development. The honours student will evaluate data from the 2021 implementation of the IPL Medication Safety Module and conduct further qualitative interviews with participants in 2022.
Techniques/Methods: This research project will involve a mixed-methods approach; quantitative analysis of changes in individual to team medication charts based on medication review and qualitative thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with students about their experience within the team-based medication review and planning. This study will most likely lead to a publication of this 2 year evaluation project
Project 2: Rural versus city – A comparison of how inter-professional teams support the development of prescribing skills and medication safety
Co-Supervisor: Sarah Hilmer + Peter Carroll
Project Summary: Final year medical students and first year interns have frequently reported that they are unprepared for prescribing in real-world practice. This project will seek to explore the experiences and perspectives of medical interns at rural hospitals on how inter-professional team helps to develop confidence and competence of medication safety and prescribing skills. These experiences will be compared to those of interns from metropolitan hospitals. There are numerous studies that have shown the combination of intra-professional (from senior clinicians) and inter-professional formal and informal learning during the first year of internship is critical for the formation of safe prescribing confidence and competence. Many of the studies have been conducted in major, tertiary teaching hospitals that have access to higher ward-based pharmacists and other health professionals. It remains unclear how, where and through which mechanisms to rural junior doctors acquire these skills when there are lower ratios of pharmacy support. This project will inform the co-design of a larger research project on how to prepare medical and pharmacy students for rural practice.
Techniques/Methods: A mixed-methods approach will be used. Quantitative questionnaires and social network analysis + qualitative in-depth interviews, thematic analysis and realist evaluation.
1 Higher Degree Research Project, Sydney Pharmacy School
Both project utilise a mixed methods approach (quantitative - questionnaires, social network analysis and qualitative - interviews, ethnography, focus groups, thematic analysis) and are evaluated using a variety of evaluation frameworks - design theory, realist, social constructive grounded theory
- Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists
- Special interest groups - Clinical Pharmacology, Education, Pharmacoepidemiology
- Associated of Medical Educators of Europe
- 2009 - ASCEPT Dennis Wade New Investigator Award
- 2011 - Cancer Institute NSW Career Development Award
- 2016 - Sydney Medical School - Teaching and Research Faculty Award
- 2020 - ASCEPT Excellence in Education Award
- 2020 - Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy UK
(Centre of Cancer and Inflammation Institute of Cancer and CRUK Clinical School School of Medicine and Dentistry Queen Mary, University of London and Barts London, UK, EC1M6BQ) Collaboration with Prof Frances Balkwill and Dr Thorsten Hagemann |
Publications
Book Chapters
- Diakos, C., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Chua, W., Howell, V., Clarke, S. (2015). Biomarkers in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer. In Victor R. Preedy and Vinood B. Patel (Eds.), Biomarkers in Cancer, (pp. 601-629). Dordrecht: Springer. [More Information]
Journals
- Chin, P., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Murnion, B., McGuire, T., Hilmer, S., Martin, J., Reith, D., Joyce, D., Lucas, C., Holford, N., O'Mara, D., et al (2023). Evaluation of the Prescribing Skills Assessment implementation, performance and medical student experience in Australia and New Zealand. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 89(10), 3105-3115. [More Information]
- Mckay, M., Castaneda, M., Catania, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Shanahan, E., Clarke, S., Engel, A., Varelis, P., Molloy, M. (2023). Quantification of short-chain fatty acids in human stool samples by LC-MS/MS following derivatization with aniline analogues. Journal of Chromatography B: Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences, 1217. [More Information]
- Roberts, C., Khanna, P., Bleasel, J., Lane, A., Burgess, A., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Howard, R., O'Mara, D., Hag, I., Rutzou, T. (2022). Student perspectives on programmatic assessment in a large medical programme: A critical realist analysis. Medical Education, 56(9), 901-914. [More Information]
2023
- Chin, P., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Murnion, B., McGuire, T., Hilmer, S., Martin, J., Reith, D., Joyce, D., Lucas, C., Holford, N., O'Mara, D., et al (2023). Evaluation of the Prescribing Skills Assessment implementation, performance and medical student experience in Australia and New Zealand. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 89(10), 3105-3115. [More Information]
- Mckay, M., Castaneda, M., Catania, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Shanahan, E., Clarke, S., Engel, A., Varelis, P., Molloy, M. (2023). Quantification of short-chain fatty acids in human stool samples by LC-MS/MS following derivatization with aniline analogues. Journal of Chromatography B: Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences, 1217. [More Information]
2022
- Roberts, C., Khanna, P., Bleasel, J., Lane, A., Burgess, A., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Howard, R., O'Mara, D., Hag, I., Rutzou, T. (2022). Student perspectives on programmatic assessment in a large medical programme: A critical realist analysis. Medical Education, 56(9), 901-914. [More Information]
2020
- Harris, B., Phan, V., Perera, V., Szyc, A., Galettis, P., Martin, J., Walpole, E., McLachlan, A., Clarke, S., Reuter, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K. (2020). Inability of Current Dosing to Achieve Carboplatin Therapeutic Targets in People with Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Impact of Systemic Inflammation on Carboplatin Exposure and Clinical Outcomes. Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 59(8), 1013-1026. [More Information]
- Lyu, N., Rajendran, V., Diefenbach, R., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S., Engel, A., Rizos, H., Molloy, M., Wang, Y. (2020). Multiplex detection of ctdna mutations in plasma of colorectal cancer patients by pcr/sers assay. Nanotheranostics, 4(4), 224-232. [More Information]
2019
- Shinko, D., McGuire, H., Diakos, C., Pavlakis, N., Clarke, S., Byrne, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K. (2019). Mass Cytometry Reveals a Sustained Reduction in CD16+ Natural Killer Cells Following Chemotherapy in Colorectal Cancer Patients. Frontiers in Immunology, 10, 1-12. [More Information]
- Shinko, D., Ashhurst, T., McGuire, H., Charles, K. (2019). Staining of Phosphorylated Signalling Markers Protocol for Mass Cytometry. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1989, 139-139. [More Information]
2017
- Shinko, D., Diakos, C., Clarke, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K. (2017). Cancer-Related Systemic Inflammation: The Challenges and Therapeutic Opportunities for Personalized Medicine. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 102(4), 599-610. [More Information]
2016
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Harris, B., Haddad, C., Clarke, S., Guminski, A., Stevens, M., Dodds, T., Gill, A., Back, M., Veivers, D., Eade, T. (2016). Systemic inflammation is an independent predictive marker of clinical outcomes in mucosal squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in oropharyngeal and nonoropharyngeal patients. BMC Cancer, 16(1), 1-13. [More Information]
2015
- Diakos, C., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Chua, W., Howell, V., Clarke, S. (2015). Biomarkers in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer. In Victor R. Preedy and Vinood B. Patel (Eds.), Biomarkers in Cancer, (pp. 601-629). Dordrecht: Springer. [More Information]
- Shen, C., Harris, B., Dawson, L., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Hambley, T., New, E. (2015). Fluorescent sensing of monofunctional platinum species. Chemical Communications, 51(29), 6312-6314. [More Information]
2014
- Diakos, C., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., McMillan, D., Clarke, S. (2014). Cancer-related inflammation and treatment effectiveness. The Lancet Oncology, 15(11), e493-e503. [More Information]
2013
- Elens, L., Nieuweboer, A., Clarke, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., De Graan, A., Haufroid, V., Mathijssen, R., Van Schaik, R. (2013). CYP3A4 intron 6 C>T SNP (CYP3A4*22) encodes lower CYP3A4 activity in cancer patients, as measured with probes midazolam and erythromycin. Pharmacogenomics, 14(2), 137-149. [More Information]
- Elens, L., Nieuweboer, A., Clarke, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., De Graan, A., Haufroid, V., van Gelder, T., Mathijssen, R., Van Schaik, R. (2013). Impact of POR*28 on the clinical pharmacokinetics of CYP3A phenotyping probes midazolam and erythromycin. Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, 23(3), 148-155. [More Information]
- Guthrie, G., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Roxburgh, C., Horgan, P., McMillan, D., Clarke, S. (2013). The systemic inflammation-based neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio: Experience in patients with cancer. Critical Reviews in Oncology / Hematology (online), 88(1), 218-230. [More Information]
2012
- Kulbe, H., Chakravarty, P., Leinster, D., Charles, K., Kwong, J., Thompson, R., Coward, J., Schioppa, T., Robinson, S., Gallagher, W., et al (2012). A dynamic inflammatory cytokine network in the human ovarian cancer microenvironment. Cancer Research, 72(1), 66-75. [More Information]
- Chua, W., Clarke, S., Charles (nee Slaviero), K. (2012). Systemic inflammation and prediction of chemotherapy outcomes in patients receiving docetaxel for advanced cancer. Supportive Care in Cancer, 20(8), 1869-1874. [More Information]
2011
- Chua, W., Kho, P., Moore, M., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S. (2011). Clinical, laboratory and molecular factors predicting chemotherapy efficacy and toxicity in colorectal cancer. Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology, 79(3), 224-250. [More Information]
- Chua, W., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Baracos, V., Clarke, S. (2011). Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio predicts chemotherapy outcomes in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. British Journal of Cancer, 104(8), 1288-1295. [More Information]
- Clarke, S., Chua, W., Moore, M., Kao, S., Phan, V., Tan, C., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., McMillan, D. (2011). Use of inflammatory markers to guide cancer treatment. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 90(3), 475-478. [More Information]
2010
- Moore, M., Chua, W., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S. (2010). Inflammation and Cancer: Causes and Consequences. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 87(4), 504-508. [More Information]
2009
- Chua, W., Moore, M., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S. (2009). Predictive biomarkers of clinical response to targeted antibodies in colorectal cancer. Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics, 11(6), 611-622. [More Information]
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Kulbe, H., Soper, R., Escorcio-Correia, M., Lawrence, T., Schultheis, A., Chakravarty, P., Thomson, R., Kollias, G., Smyth, J., et al (2009). The tumor-promoting actions of TNF-α involve TNFR1 and IL-17 in ovarian cancer in mice and humans. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 119(10), 3011-2023. [More Information]
2008
- Hagemann, T., Lawrence, T., McNeish, I., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Kulbe, H., Thompson, R., Robinson, S., Balkwill, F. (2008). "Re-educating" tumor-associated macrophages by targeting NF-κB. The Journal of Experimental Medicine, 205(6), 1261-1268. [More Information]
- Brown, E., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Hoare, S., Rye, R., Jodrell, D., Aird, R., Vora, R., Prabhakar, U., Nakada, M., Corringham, R., et al (2008). A clinical study assessing the tolerability and biological effects of infliximab, a TNF-alpha inhibitor, in patients with advanced cancer. Annals of Oncology, 19(7), 1340-1346. [More Information]
2007
- Hagemann, T., Robinson, S., Thompson, R., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Kulbe, H., Balkwill, F. (2007). Ovarian cancer cell–derived migration inhibitory factor enhances tumor growth, progression, and angiogenesis. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, 6(7), 1993-2002. [More Information]
- Harrison, M., Obermueller, E., Maisey, N., Hoare, S., Edmonds, K., Li, N., Chao, D., Hall, K., Lee, C., Timotheadou, E., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., et al (2007). Tumor necrosis Factor α as a new target for renal cell carcinoma: Two sequential phase II trials of infliximab at standard and high dose. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25(29), 4542-4549. [More Information]
2006
- Hagemann, T., Wilson, J., Burke, F., Kulbe, H., Li, N., Plüddemann, A., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Gordon, S., Balkwill, F. (2006). Ovarian Cancer Cells Polarize Macrophages Toward A Tumor-Associated Phenotype. Journal of Immunology, 176(8), 5023-5032. [More Information]
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Rivory, L., Stockler, M., Beale, P., Beith, J., Boyer, M., Clarke, S. (2006). Predicting the toxicity of weekly docetaxel in advanced cancer. Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 45(6), 611-622. [More Information]
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Rivory, L., Brown, S., Liddle, C., Clarke, S., Robertson, G. (2006). Transcriptional repression of hepatic cytochrome P450 3A4 gene in the presence of cancer. Clinical Cancer Research, 12(24), 7492-7497. [More Information]
2005
- Hagemann, T., Wilson, J., Kulbe, H., Li, N., Leinster, D., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Klemm, F., Pukrop, T., Binder, C., Balkwill, F. (2005). Macrophages Induce Invasiveness of Epithelial Cancer Cells Via NF-κB and JNK. Journal of Immunology, 175(2), 1197-1205. [More Information]
- Balkwill, F., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Mantovani, A. (2005). Smoldering and polarized inflammation in the initiation and promotion of malignant disease. Cancer Cell, 7(3, March 2005), 211-217. [More Information]
2004
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S., McLachlan, A., Blair, E., Rivory, L. (2004). Population Pharmacokinetics Of Weekly Docetaxel In Patients With Advanced Cancer. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 57(1), 44-53. [More Information]
2003
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Read, J., Clarke, S., Rivory, L. (2003). Baseline Nutritional Assessment in Advanced Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Chemotherapy. Nutrition and Cancer, 46(2), 148-157. [More Information]
- Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S., Rivory, L. (2003). Inflammatory response: an unrecognised source of variability in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of cancer chemotherapy. The Lancet Oncology, 4(4), 224-232. [More Information]
2002
- Rivory, L., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Clarke, S. (2002). Hepatic cytochrome P450 3A drug metabolism is reduced in cancer patients who have an acute-phase response. British Journal of Cancer, 87(3), 277-280. [More Information]
2001
- Rivory, L., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Hoskins, J., Clarke, S. (2001). The erythromycin breath test for the prediction of drug clearance. Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 40, 151-158. [More Information]
2000
- Rivory, L., Charles (nee Slaviero), K., Seale, J., Hoskins, J., Boyer, M., Beale, P., Millward, M., Bishop, J., Clarke, S. (2000). Optimizing the erythromycin breath test for use in cancer patients. Clinical Cancer Research, 6, 3480-3485.
Selected Grants
2022
- A realist evaluation of an Inter-Professional medication safety micro-curriculum bridging case-based and simulation worlds, Charles (nee Slaviero) K, Schneider C, Frotjold A, Carter S, Maw M, Buckley N, Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE)/ANZAHPE Research Grants
2017
- Sydney 1000 Bowel Cancer Study, Charles (nee Slaviero) K, Sydney Vital Translational Cancer Research/Seed Funding