Dr Janet Sluggett is a Senior Research Fellow at UniSA Allied Health & Human Performance, University of South Australia. She is an Affiliate Post-doctoral Researcher at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash University.

Janet is a pharmacist and her NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (2019-22) focuses on using ‘Big Data’ to maximise the benefits and reduce the risks relating to medicines use among older people receiving community and residential aged care services. Janet collaborates closely with the Registry Of Senior Australians (ROSA) at SAHMRI and residential aged care providers.

Janet also conducts research to support new models of pharmacy practice. For example, Janet has collaborated with aged care providers and other industry partners on an NHMRC-funded randomised controlled trial to simplify medication regimens for residents of aged care facilities. This innovative research project seeks to improve medication management in residential aged care and establish an extended role for pharmacists in this setting.

Janet has been nationally recognised for excellence as an early career pharmacist researcher. She recently received a 2020 SA Young Tall Poppy Science Award from the Australian Institute of Policy and Sciences for excellence in research and community outreach. Janet received the 2017 Australian Association of Gerontology SA Robert Penhall Early Career Research Award and the 2018 British Pharmacological Society/Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists Outstanding Young Investigator Award. Janet was acknowledged as one of South Australia’s most innovative women when she received the Winnovation 2019 Social Impact Award for her research leadership to develop a new service to simplify medication regimens in SA residential aged care homes. She discussed her research, and medication management in residential aged care, as an invited expert witness at a public hearing of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in July 2019.

Janet is a Fellow of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia and she is accredited to perform medicines reviews. She is an invited member of the New Drugs Advisory Group for the Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary and Handbook. Janet is an active member of the Editorial Board for Drugs-Real World Outcomes and Assistant Editor for the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. She received the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia SA/NT Pharmacist of the Year Award 2017 in recognition of her significant contributions to pharmacy research, community engagement and professional development. 

Janet is a Non-Executive Director of the Australian MedicAlert Foundation. She has previously been a visiting research fellow at the Kaiser Permanente National Implant Registries in San Diego and the Kuopio Research Centre for Geriatric Care, University of Eastern Finland.