MARCH Panel
Michelle Rowe
Michelle Rowe began her oncology pharmacy career at The Christie Hospital, Manchester, in 1984. After qualifying with Apothecary Hall in 1985, she progressed to Senior Technician (Cytotoxic services) and, in 1988, became Chief Technician with the majority of responsibilities within the cytotoxic service, whilst managing the technical staff.
In 1996, Michelle took on the role of hospital infusor co-ordinator and was involved with medical and nursing staff, patient training and chemotherapy at home, gaining much experience in the field of ambulatory chemotherapy. Her work in this field was presented at several national and international meetings, including ASCO, ECCO and ASHP. She won first prize for the Guild/Baxter Healthcare Intravenous Therapy Award after carrying out a pilot scheme changing inpatient de Gramont treatment, for colorectal cancer, to an outpatient treatment.
Michelle was promoted to Dispensary Manager in 1998 and, 18 months later, moved to Clinical Services, dealing closely with patients and medical staff. She was involved in the development of clinical services, managing a ward based team and a satellite day-case pharmacy. Her role developed further to incorporate education, training and clinical audit for the pharmacy and two days per week managing the GI team and their clinical trial practice. In 2001, she received ‘Highly Commended’ from the AAH Technician of the Year Award for her submission The Establishment of a Clinical Technician Role in the Multidisciplinary Care of the Oncology Patient.
Michelle returned to pharmacy full time in 2005, when she concentrated on pharmacy training whilst continuing with her outpatient clinic commitment and clinically screening chemotherapy prescriptions, specialising in GI cancers. Another cross roads was reached in 2007, when she decided to return to her roots and take on the technical lead post for aseptic services.