# Andy Charlwood — Complete Career & Portfolio Reference

**MPharm, GPhC Registered Pharmacist**
Norwich, UK | andy@charlwood.xyz | https://andy.charlwood.xyz/
**Age:** 32 (as of 2025)
**Registration:** GPhC Registered Pharmacist (August 2016 – Present)

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## Personal Summary

GPhC-registered pharmacist and self-taught data analyst/developer who combines deep clinical pharmacy expertise with advanced technical capabilities in Python, SQL, and Power BI. Currently Deputy Head of Population Health and Data Analytics at NHS Norfolk & Waveney ICB, managing analytical strategy for a £220M prescribing budget serving 1.2 million people. Has delivered £14.6M+ in documented efficiency savings through data-driven interventions.

Core value proposition: bridging two traditionally separate worlds by bringing clinical understanding of medicines and practice together with advanced analytics and automation.

Self-taught during night shifts at Tesco Pharmacy (2017–2022), progressing from Excel macros to sophisticated Python applications, machine learning, and population-scale health analytics. No formal data qualifications — entirely self-directed learning through Stack Overflow, Python documentation, YouTube, and real-world problem solving. Daily practice of 30–60 minutes most evenings for approximately 5 years.

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## Career Timeline

### McDonald's Corporation — Floor Manager, Crew Trainer & Crew Member
**September 2009 – June 2014 | Ashford, Kent**

Progressed from Crew Member to Floor Manager while completing A-levels and undergraduate pharmacy degree. Developed leadership, customer service, and operational management skills in high-pressure environment. Trained and evaluated staff performance, oversaw cash and inventory management, health and safety compliance, and operational efficiency during peak trading periods.

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### University of East Anglia — MPharm (2:1 Honours)
**2011 – 2015**

- Failed pharmacy exams in years 1, 2, and 3 before completing the degree — a fact Andy is open about and uses as a powerful narrative about resilience
- Independent research project on drug delivery and cocrystals: 75.1% (Distinction level)
- 4th year OSCE (clinical skills assessment): 80%
- President, UEA Pharmacy Society (May 2014 – April 2015)
- Secretary & Vice-President, UEA Ultimate Frisbee (May 2014 – April 2015)
- Publicity Officer, UEA Alzheimer's Society (May 2013 – April 2014)

**A-Levels (Highworth Grammar School, 2009–2011):** Mathematics (A*), Chemistry (B), Politics (C)

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### Paydens Pharmacy — Pre-Registration Pharmacist
**July 2015 – July 2016 | Tunbridge Wells & Ashford, Kent**

Completed professional training in challenging, service-rich environment, taking on advanced responsibilities beyond typical pre-registration scope.

- Led initiation of Patient Group Directions (PGDs) including NRT, emergency hormonal contraception, and chlamydia screening/treatment services
- Conducted comprehensive NMS audit, increasing completion rates from under 10% to 50–60% of target through process improvement
- Provided clinical screening services for palliative care hospice — complex patient care and end-of-life medication management experience
- Developed understanding of wholesale procedures, regulatory compliance, and pharmacy business operations

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### Tesco PLC — Duty Pharmacy Manager → Pharmacy Manager
**August 2016 – May 2022 | Great Yarmouth, Norfolk**

**Duty Pharmacy Manager (August 2016 – October 2017):** Progressed from newly qualified pharmacist to Acting Pharmacy Manager within two months. Co-led regional initiatives for NMS and asthma referrals, developing resources supporting service provision across the region.

**Pharmacy Manager (November 2017 – May 2022):** Managed all pharmacy operations with full autonomy across a 100-hour contract. Regional KPI delivery lead. Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) representative for Norfolk.

Key achievements:

- **National asthma screening solution:** Designed quality payments solution for asthma patient screening implemented nationally across Tesco's entire pharmacy estate (~300 branches), reducing pharmacist time from approximately 60 hours to 6 hours per store per month and enabling approximately £1M in revenue across the network
- **National training:** Created induction training plan and eLearning modules for all new Tesco pharmacy staff nationally, with enhanced focus on culture and leadership development for non-pharmacist team members
- **Regional NMS leadership:** Led KPI delivery initiatives including New Medication Service (NMS), achieving target performance and developing implementation resources adopted across 39 pharmacies in the region
- **System integration:** Established collaborative working relationships with local PCN and ICS partners, creating agreed protocols for managing medicine supply issues affecting patient care
- **Staff development:** Supervised two staff members through NVQ3 qualifications to pharmacy technician registration — full HR responsibilities including recruitment, performance management, grievances, rotas, locum booking
- Initiated multiple PGDs (NRT, EHC, chlamydia)
- Increased NMS completion from <10% to 50–60% of target through audit-driven process improvements
- Embedded no-blame culture promoting psychological safety, open communication, and shared accountability

**This is where coding was learned.** During night shifts and quiet periods at Tesco (2017–2022), Andy taught himself to code:
1. Started with Excel macros to automate repetitive pharmacy tasks
2. Progressed to VBA for more complex automation
3. Moved to Python through online tutorials and real-world pharmacy problems
4. Built projects including financial modelling (Black-Scholes options pricing, gamma mapping from options open interest)
5. Learned SQL once he gained access to NHS databases
6. Daily practice of 30–60 minutes most evenings for approximately 5 years
7. Resources: Stack Overflow, Python documentation, YouTube — entirely self-directed

**NHS Leadership Academy — Mary Seacole Programme (78%) | April – October 2018:** Formal NHS leadership qualification covering change management, healthcare leadership, and system-level thinking.

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### NHS Norfolk & Waveney ICB — High-Cost Drugs & Interface Pharmacist
**May 2022 – July 2024 | Norwich, Norfolk**

Hired for clinical skills, not data — but quickly demonstrated what data analysis could do for the team. This role was the bridge between community pharmacy and data leadership.

Led implementation of NICE technology appraisals and high-cost drug pathways across the ICS. Wrote most of the system's high-cost drug pathways — spanning rheumatology, ophthalmology (wet AMD, DMO, RVO), dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology, and migraine — balancing legal requirements to implement TAs against financial costs and local clinical preferences. Engaged clinical leads across all sectors of care to agree pathways and secure system-wide adoption.

Key achievements:

- **Blueteq automation:** Developed software automating Blueteq prior approval form creation, achieving 70% reduction in required forms, 200 hours immediate savings, and ongoing 7–8 hours weekly efficiency gains
- **Blueteq data integration:** Integrated Blueteq data with secondary care activity databases, resolving critical data-matching limitations and enabling accurate high-cost drug spend tracking for the first time across the system
- **Sankey chart patient flow analysis:** Developed Python-based Sankey chart analysis tool visualising patient journeys through high-cost drug pathways. Enabled trusts to audit compliance, identify improvement opportunities, and understand flow through complex treatment pathways visually
- **Clinical pathway development:** Created evidence-based clinical pathways for multiple therapeutic areas (rheumatology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology/IBD, dermatology, neurology, migraine)
- **ADHD medication shortage:** Provided strategic guidance and primary care prescribing recommendations during ADHD medication shortage in partnership with Norfolk & Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) consultant psychiatrists

**Technical environment:** Python, Blueteq platform, NHS data systems, secondary care activity databases, pathway development and visualisation tools

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### NHS Norfolk & Waveney ICB — Deputy Head, Population Health & Data Analysis
**July 2024 – Present | Norwich, Norfolk**

Driving data analytics strategy for medicines optimisation across Norfolk & Waveney Integrated Care System. Develops bespoke datasets and analytical frameworks from messy, real-world GP prescribing data to identify efficiency opportunities and address health inequalities.

Reports to the Associate Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation, with presentation accountability to the Chief Medical Officer and system-level programme boards.

Key responsibilities include managing a £220M prescribing budget with sophisticated forecasting models, leading data infrastructure development, and translating complex clinical, financial, and analytical requirements into clear recommendations for executive stakeholders.

#### Interim Head, Population Health & Data Analysis (May – Nov 2025)

Effectively performing the role from January 2025; formally appointed and paid at Interim Head rate from May 2025. Previous manager retired end of December 2024. Returned to substantive Deputy Head role following commencement of ICB-wide organisational consultation (structural/organisational change, not performance-related — potential redundancies paused permanent recruitment).

Led strategic delivery of population health initiatives and data-driven medicines optimisation across Norfolk & Waveney ICS, reporting to Associate Director of Pharmacy with presentation accountability to Chief Medical Officer and system-level programme boards.

- Identified and prioritised a £14.6M efficiency programme through comprehensive data analysis; achieved over-target performance by October 2025 through targeted, evidence-based interventions across the integrated care system
- Built Python-based switching algorithm using real-world GP prescribing data to automatically identify patients on expensive drugs suitable for cost-effective alternatives — compressing months of manual analysis into 3 days, identifying 14,000 patients and £2.6M in annual savings, of which £2M is on target for delivery this financial year
- Automated incentive scheme analysis, improving accuracy and targeting precision whilst enabling a novel GP payment system linking rewards to delivered savings; achieved 50% reduction in targeted prescribing within the first two months of deployment
- Presented strategy, programme progress, and financial position to Chief Medical Officer on a bimonthly basis, providing evidence-based recommendations to inform executive decision-making
- Led transformation from practice-level data to patient-level SQL analytics, enabling targeted interventions and a self-serve model for the wider team

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## Key Projects (Detailed)

### 1. PharMetrics — Automated Switching Algorithm (Biggest Achievement)

**The Problem:** The medicines optimisation team ran an annual switching scheme to identify cost-effective medication alternatives. This previously took months of manual work, with a team of people searching tools like OpenPrescribing for opportunities.

**The Solution:** A Python-based algorithm that ingests 6 months of real-world GP prescribing data and automatically identifies patients on expensive drugs suitable for cost-effective alternatives. Uses dm+d schema to group therapeutically equivalent products by ingredient, route, and form, then calculates cost-per-unit differentials. Calculates which switches give the best return on intervention, optimising for the minimum number of patients to switch for the maximum financial saving.

**Development Process:** Andy built this independently with a high degree of autonomy. Once the analysis was complete, he engaged the wider medicines optimisation team for clinical sign-off on the final switch list, which took approximately 3 days versus the previous months of manual work.

**The Novel Payment System:** Andy designed a unique incentive structure for the GP switching scheme. The GP incentive amount varies based on the savings delivered from each switch: higher-value switches earn a higher incentive payment, lower-value switches earn less. This incentivises GPs to prioritise the highest-impact changes first.

**Monitoring:** Created dashboards tracking patient-level switching data, monitoring which patients have been switched (or are no longer prescribed the target drug), with quality metrics providing points for each patient intervention. Wrote SQL searches to create specific targeted patient cohorts and built dashboards so practices could monitor their own progress.

**Impact:**
- Transformed months of manual work into a 3-day automated process
- Identified 14,000 patients for intervention
- £2.8M maximum potential annual savings (~£200 average per patient); refined to £2.6M with £2M on target for delivery this financial year
- 50% reduction in targeted prescribing within first 2 months
- Dashboard focuses on low-risk, cost-effective switches (essentially identical generic medicines under different brands)

### 2. Patient Pathway Visualisation (Sankey Charts)

**The Problem:** NHS trusts needed to understand how well they were aligned to agreed clinical pathways for high-cost drugs. No way to visualise patient journeys through treatment sequences.

**The Solution:** A Python-based tool that ingests years of patient-level prescribing data and creates Sankey charts showing patient journeys through treatments (Drug A → Drug B → Drug C → Drug D). Visualises how well trusts align to written pathways and identifies where patients deviate from expected treatment sequences.

**Impact:** An external-facing tool provided to local trusts. Trusts can understand their own positioning, identify opportunities for improvement, and see which specialists need to be engaged. Used for audit and compliance purposes.

### 3. Controlled Drug Monitoring System / Opioid Monitoring Dashboard

**The Problem:** The team needed to identify high-risk opioid users, track total opioid exposure over time, and identify potential diversion. Previously impossible at patient level.

**The Solution:** A Python-based system that takes all opioid prescriptions in the system and calculates oral morphine equivalents (OME) for each drug. Tracks patient-level opioid exposure over 6–9 months, identifies patients with dangerously high total exposure, and flags potential diversion risks. Deployed as a system-wide dashboard across Norfolk & Waveney. Patient-level analysis showing prescribers, dispensing pharmacies, and patterns.

**Impact:** Supports the controlled drug assurance element of medicines optimisation. Identifies high-risk patients for intervention. Improved patient safety monitoring at population scale. Connected to published evaluation research: system-wide opioid deprescribing intervention demonstrated 18.3% decrease in high-dose opioids (vs 6.9% national average) and 9.2% decrease in total opioid prescribing (vs 4% national average). Working with Professor Debi Bhattacharya and data scientist Adam on difference-in-differences evaluation methodology for academic publication.

### 4. Comprehensive Medicines Data Table

**Developed with:** ICB data engineering team

**What it contains:** All medicines currently available on the dm+d (Dictionary of Medicines and Devices), with standardised drug strength calculations (returning the amount of grams of active ingredient in each product for direct product-to-product comparison), opioid morphine equivalent calculations for all opioid medications, and Anticholinergic Burden (ACB) scoring.

**Why it matters:** Functions as a lookup table where you can find the cheapest formulation with a single minimum value search. Single source of truth for all medicines analytics across the system. Democratised access to data, enabled more targeted interventions, and created a self-serve model that reduces bottlenecks.

### 5. Blueteq Prior Approval Automation

**The Problem:** High-cost drugs required prior approval through Blueteq forms. Process was bureaucratic and time-consuming.

**The Solution:** Software that automates Blueteq prior approval form creation. Also integrated Blueteq data with secondary care activity databases, resolving critical data-matching limitations.

**Impact:** 70% reduction in required forms. 200 hours immediate savings. Ongoing 7–8 hours weekly efficiency gains. Enabled accurate high-cost drug spend tracking.

### 6. DOAC Switching Programme — Financial Scenario Modelling

Led financial scenario modelling for a system-wide DOAC (Direct Oral Anticoagulant) switching programme, building an interactive dashboard incorporating rebate mechanics, clinician switching capacity, workforce constraints, and patent expiry timelines to quantify risk trade-offs for senior decision-makers.

Modelled complex rebate scheme with Daiichi Sankyo for edoxaban. Led pharmaceutical company negotiations, using market share leverage to secure rebate extension for merged ICB system (Norfolk & Suffolk). Built financial dashboard showing switching scenarios, rebate thresholds, and break-even analysis.

### 7. Tirzepatide Commissioning (NICE TA1026)

Supported commissioning of tirzepatide, including financial projections identifying eligible patient cohorts from real-world data. Monte Carlo modelling with Dirichlet distributions for dose uncertainty, predictive analytics for demand forecasting, detailed cohort analysis. GP survey data analysis (~70 responses) informing capacity planning. Local Enhanced Service (LES) model development for primary care delivery.

Authored the initial executive paper advocating a primary care delivery model over a specialist provider on cost-effectiveness and accessibility grounds. This drove the system's shift to a GP-led model following executive sign-off. Cross-ICB collaboration with SNEE ICB to validate methodologies.

### 8. Prescribing Incentive Scheme (Novel Design)

Automated the previously manual incentive scheme analysis, improving accuracy and targeting precision. Enabled a novel GP payment system linking rewards to delivered savings.

Transformed approach from single-target thresholds to flexible points-based system. Practices can target multiple indicators simultaneously with novel mechanism allowing "overflow" points for priority switches. Patient-level tracking: one patient de-prescribed = one point. Indicators include: PPIs in children, pericyazine deprescribing, antipsychotics in dementia, anticholinergic burden reduction, iron supplementation, opioid deprescribing.

Created patient-level searches to centrally track GP data for incentive measures. Achieved 50% reduction in targeted prescribing within the first two months.

### 9. AI/LLM Work

- Fine-tuned an 11B parameter LLM to decode free-text prescription directions into daily quantities (e.g. "take two tablets three times a day" → structured data)
- Enables identification of overprescribing patterns and potential controlled drug misuse
- Auto-updating analysis identifying patients with high oral morphine equivalent across multiple prescribers/pharmacies
- Explored Claude agents for clinical pharmacy review at scale
- Researched pharmacogenomics applications — using medication persistence patterns as proxies for pharmacogenomic variants (CYP2D6, CYP2C19 etc.)

### 10. QIPP Efficiency Target Delivery

- £14.6M+ efficiency opportunities identified by October 2025, exceeding QIPP target
- Budget of £220M prescribing managed — currently under budget
- Additional savings anticipated from dapagliflozin patent expiration
- Historic invoice backlog fully cleared — reduced from over 500 invoices dating from 2019

### 11. Polypharmacy Prescribing Dashboard

- Indicators: average active ingredients, distinct medicines, oral morphine equivalent (90 days), anticholinergic burden score, Johns Hopkins emergency admission risk (12m), inpatient admission risk (6m), mortality risk score
- Person Need Cluster and Healthcare Resource groupings
- Population-level and practice-level views

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## High-Cost Drug Pathways

Andy wrote most of Norfolk & Waveney's high-cost drug pathways, balancing legal requirements to implement NICE Technology Appraisals against financial costs and local clinical preferences. Engaged clinical leads across all sectors of care to agree pathways and secure system-wide adoption.

### Therapeutic Areas Covered

- **Ophthalmology:** Wet AMD, DMO, RVO, central vein occlusion
- **Rheumatology:** Rheumatoid arthritis and related conditions
- **Gastroenterology:** IBD (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis)
- **Dermatology**
- **Neurology**
- **Migraine:** The most comprehensive and recent pathway, spanning both primary and secondary care, including lasmiditan, rimegepant, and other treatments. Co-written with neurology consultant. Rolled out across all GP practices and all secondary care trusts as a system-wide formulary recommendation.

### Common Barriers & How They Were Overcome

- Getting buy-in from GPs on primary care treatment routes
- Managing drugs on Pregnancy Prevention Programmes (valproates, topiramates)
- Varying levels of engagement from different consultants
- Cost pressures vs clinical preferences
- Ensuring equity of access across geographical areas

Overcome through extensive GP engagement, clear safety documentation, specialist collaboration, accessible prescribing guidance, and ensuring pathways were practical and implementable.

### Additional Clinical Work

- Provided primary care prescribing guidance during the ADHD medication shortage in partnership with NSFT consultant psychiatrists
- Led weight management service development as the leading clinical voice, leading the bid for funding
- Horizon scanning for new NICE technology appraisals, preparing commissioning strategies and financial impact assessments
- Antimicrobial stewardship work and audits at system level
- Core20PLUS5 targeted interventions (health inequalities)
- Community pharmacy innovation: researched PGD framework for community pharmacy-led DOAC switching, designed payment model (£20 per pharmacist consultation, £5 GP admin fee)

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## Data Infrastructure Transformation

- Led team transition from practice-level EPACT data to patient-level SQL-based analytics
- Created self-serve data model empowering medicines optimisation colleagues
- Developed comprehensive medicines data infrastructure integrating all dm+d products
- Direct access to ICB databases (Snowflake) — unusual for a pharmacy role
- Integration of multiple data sources: ePACT2, OpenPrescribing, Eclipse, Fingertips, ICB data warehouse, Blueteq, secondary care activity data

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## Technical Skills

### Programming & Data
- **Python** (primary language, ~6–7 years): pandas, numpy, matplotlib, data analysis, algorithm development, automation, machine learning, API integration, financial modelling
- **SQL** (daily use, possibly more than Python now): Snowflake, NHS databases, complex joins, CTEs, window functions
- **Power BI**: Dashboard development, DAX measures, interactive reporting
- **Excel/VBA** (advanced): Pivot tables, macros, automation, interactive workbooks
- **JavaScript/TypeScript** (hobby level): Web development, personal website
- **DuckDB**: Local data warehousing experiments
- **Algorithm Design:** Switching algorithms, cost-effectiveness calculations, patient identification logic
- **Data Pipeline Development:** Building analytical infrastructure from messy real-world data

### Machine Learning & AI
- Fine-tuned LLMs (11B parameter model for prescription direction parsing)
- Monte Carlo simulation modelling
- Predictive analytics and demand forecasting
- Black-Scholes options pricing models (first major Python project)
- Gamma mapping from options open interest
- Experience with cloud GPU (A100) for model deployment
- 3D medical imaging AI model deployment (experimental)

### Healthcare Data Systems
- **SystmOne:** Direct working experience (primary care clinical system)
- **dm+d:** Deep schema knowledge (VTM, VMP, VMPP, AMP, AMPP hierarchies)
- **Blueteq:** Prior approval forms, data integration with secondary care databases
- **ePACT2:** NHS BSA prescribing data
- **SNOMED CT:** Used primarily in analytics work for patient cohort identification and clinical coding
- **OpenPrescribing, Fingertips, Eclipse:** External data tools for horizon scanning and benchmarking
- **Johns Hopkins ACG system:** Risk stratification
- **Patient-level prescribing and dispensing data**
- **Secondary care activity data**

### Self-Assessed Competency Ratings

**Data & Analytics (Core Strengths):**
- Data Analytics & Visualisation: 5/5
- Healthcare/Population Health Analytics: 5/5
- SQL/Database Management: 4/5
- Python Programming: 4/5
- Dashboard Development (Power BI): 5/5
- Statistical Analysis & Forecasting: 5/5
- Prescribing Data Analysis: 5/5

**NHS & Healthcare Expertise:**
- NHS System Knowledge & Navigation: 5/5
- Medicines Optimisation: 5/5
- Population Health Management: 5/5
- Clinical Pathway Design: 4/5
- Health Inequalities Understanding: 4/5
- Pharmaceutical Policy & Regulation: 5/5
- NICE Guidance Implementation: 5/5

### Tools & Platforms
- Jupyter Notebooks / DataSpell
- Git
- Home Assistant (extensive home automation)
- Unraid server administration
- ESPHome / ESP32 firmware
- 3D printing (Bambu Lab printers, PETG, ASA materials)
- Claude Code (command line agentic coding)

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## Leadership & Management Style

### Philosophy

Andy's leadership approach centres on coaching, autonomy, and leading through expertise rather than positional authority. His entire career has been about changing processes and improving efficiency, and every process change requires coaching and change management. Core principle: you have to take people with you.

### Key Examples

**No-Blame Culture (Community Pharmacy):** Embedded a culture where everyone has a valid opinion regardless of hierarchy. Created an environment where people feel free to speak up and challenge authority. Dismantled traditional hierarchical barriers while maintaining necessary governance structures.

**Autonomy-Based Working (ICB):** High degree of autonomy in how people work. Minimal micromanagement. People given direction on what needs to be done but freedom in how to achieve it. Leading through expertise and guidance rather than authority.

**Leading Without Formal Authority:**
- Weight management service development: leading clinical voice in pathway development, leading bid for funding, subject matter expert providing direction with no formal authority over the people looking to him for guidance
- Cross-trust pathway implementation: engaging specialists, GPs, chief pharmacists across multiple organisations to secure adoption of new pathways

**Team Transformation:** Led the change from practice-level EPACT data to patient-level SQL analytics. A long process requiring sustained coaching and support, providing training and framework to enable team growth, pointing team members to relevant training resources, removing barriers and blocks to development.

**Staff Development:** Supervised two staff members through NVQ3 qualifications to pharmacy technician registration. Trained all new pharmacy staff at Tesco (internally recruited from other departments) requiring significant upskilling.

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## Stakeholder Engagement

Andy's work requires engagement across a complex web of NHS stakeholders:

- **Executive level:** Bimonthly presentations to Chief Medical Officer; evidence-based recommendations to inform executive decision-making
- **Associate Director level:** Direct reporting line to Associate Director of Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation
- **System-level programme boards:** Presentation accountability
- **GP practices:** Incentive scheme deployment, targeted cohort identification, dashboard provision, switching scheme implementation
- **Acute trusts:** Pathway compliance analytics (Sankey charts), high-cost drug pathway agreement
- **Hospital consultants:** Detailed clinical discussions on niche high-cost drug pathways (ophthalmologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists, neurologists)
- **Chief pharmacists:** Cross-trust pathway adoption, prescribing guidance
- **Pharmaceutical companies:** Rebate negotiations, commercial terms renegotiation ahead of patent expiry
- **Other ICBs:** Sharing resources and best practices
- **ICB data engineering team:** Collaborative development of medicines data infrastructure

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## Speaking & Public Engagement

### UEA "Careers in Data" Panel (November 2025)
- Guest panelist at University of East Anglia
- Spoke about journey from self-taught coding to NHS data leadership
- Audience: current UEA students interested in data careers
- Unique positioning: only panelist combining clinical healthcare with self-taught data skills

### UEA "Inspirational Roles in Pharmacy" Presentation (September 2025)
- Invited back to alma mater for 10–15 minute presentation on non-traditional pharmacy career
- Presented to first-year pharmacy students
- Focused on demonstrating unconventional career paths within pharmacy

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## Career Transition Strategy

### Target Sectors
Actively exploring transition from NHS to private sector, targeting:
- Pharmaceutical companies (Medical Affairs, Market Access, HEOR)
- Health-tech companies (Clinical Implementation, Product Development, Clinical Informatics)
- Consulting firms (Healthcare consulting, analytics)

### Target Seniority
Senior Manager / Associate Director level positions (considers Director/Head titles premature at 32 without private sector experience). Leveraging the combination of clinical pharmacy expertise and self-taught technical skills.

### Positioning
- "Pharmacist who builds health tech solutions" — NOT "pharmacist trying to transition into tech"
- Core differentiator: clinical domain expertise + technical capability + strategic leadership at scale
- NHS language translation needed for private sector contexts
- UK professional communication values evidence-based understatement over American-style self-promotion

### Dual-CV Approach
Two CV variants sharing core content but differing in emphasis:
1. **Strategic CV:** Optimised for senior roles highlighting data analytics, integrated care systems terminology, and system-level transformation
2. **Traditional Pharmacy CV:** Prioritises patient-facing clinical keywords, community pharmacy competencies, and GPhC-related terminology

### Identified Gaps
- No direct digital health technology implementation experience
- No experience working directly with external software vendors or technology companies
- Limited external visibility: no formal conference presentations or publications
- No direct experience scaling solutions beyond Norfolk & Waveney system boundaries

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## Organisational Context

### Norfolk & Waveney ICB Structure
- Part of NHS Norfolk & Waveney Integrated Care Board
- Medicines optimisation team sits within broader ICS structure
- Population health pillar looks 2–5 years ahead to understand risks and posture the system
- BI team exists separately but historically poor collaboration with medicines optimisation
- Andy has unusual direct access to ICB databases — typically pharmacy roles don't have this

### ICB Merger (April 2026)
- Norfolk & Waveney merging with Suffolk (from SNEE ICB)
- Significant alignment work ongoing: formularies, incentive schemes, Blueteq, pathways, policies
- Using AI tools (Copilot) to compare policy differences between systems

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## Daily Work Breakdown

Typical week splits roughly:
- **~40% meetings and strategy:** Stakeholder engagement, national/regional calls, working with colleagues on projects, supporting decisions with data
- **~40% coding and analysis:** Writing Python scripts, SQL queries, building Power BI dashboards, curating insights for stakeholders
- **~20% problem-solving:** Figuring out how to solve problems, navigating challenges, political landscape

Key insight: curating insights in a way where stakeholders will listen — the communication/political piece is as important as the technical work.

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## Key Quantified Metrics — Quick Reference

| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Prescribing budget managed | £220M |
| Efficiency programme identified | £14.6M+ |
| Patients identified (switching algorithm) | 14,000 |
| Maximum potential switching savings | £2.8M (refined to £2.6M) |
| Average saving per switched patient | ~£200/year |
| Switching savings on target for delivery | £2M |
| Prescribing reduction (first 2 months) | 50% |
| Blueteq form reduction | 70% |
| Blueteq immediate time savings | 200 hours |
| Blueteq ongoing weekly savings | 7–8 hours |
| Tesco asthma process time reduction | 60 hours to 6 hours/store/month |
| Tesco network revenue enabled | ~£1M |
| Population served (prescribing data) | ~600,000 |
| ICS population | 1.2 million |
| Manual analysis compressed to | 3 days |
| NMS completion rate improvement | Under 10% → 50–60% |
| Opioid prescribing reduction (NW vs national) | 18.3% vs 6.9% (high-dose) |
| Invoice backlog cleared | 500+ invoices from 2019 → current |

---

## Philosophy & Approach

### On Data-Driven Healthcare
"What is the question you want answered?" — Andy's framing for colleagues. Not "what's going on with this drug?" but specific, targeted questions that allow data to provide actionable insight.

### On the Clinical-Technical Bridge
"The skills gap in healthcare isn't just technical people or just clinical people — it's people who can speak both languages. That gap is your opportunity."

### On Population vs Individual Impact
"As a community pharmacist, we would dispense 6,000 items a month to probably 3,000 patients. I had lovely relationships with patients — I've cried with patients when their significant others died. But the population of our system is 1.1–1.2 million people. Being able to directly target 50,000 people — if you can incentivise GPs to do a single piece of work cost-effectively that prevents even some of them from having a fall and going to A&E with a broken hip — you can't see that direct impact, but I know it's making a difference."

### On Self-Teaching
"Don't wait for the perfect course. Find something that annoys you, break it down into steps, Google each step. Your first code will be bad. That's fine — mine was awful."

### On Communication
"I spend more time in PowerPoint than Python — that's not taught but it's critical."

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## Personal Interests & Technical Hobbies

- **Home automation:** Extensive Home Assistant setup, multiple Raspberry Pis, ESP32 microcontrollers, ESPHome firmware
- **Unraid server:** Running home server infrastructure
- **3D printing:** Bambu Lab printers, PETG and ASA materials, designing enclosures for electronics projects
- **Electronics:** ESP32 projects including environmental monitoring (BME280/BME680), presence detection (LD2410 mmWave), e-ink displays
- **Financial markets:** Built Black-Scholes options pricing and gamma mapping tools — first major Python project
- **Photography:** Listed as personal interest
- **Father:** Married with young children

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## Education Summary

| Qualification | Institution | Date | Grade/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MPharm (Hons) | University of East Anglia | 2011–2015 | 2:1. Research project: 75.1% (Distinction). OSCE: 80%. Failed exams years 1–3 |
| A-Levels | Highworth Grammar School | 2009–2011 | Maths (A*), Chemistry (B), Politics (C) |
| Mary Seacole Programme | NHS Leadership Academy | Apr–Oct 2018 | 78% |
| Snowflake Badge | Snowflake | — | Hands-On Essentials: Data Warehousing |

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## Certifications & Registration

- **GPhC Registered Pharmacist** — August 2016 to present
- **Snowflake:** Hands-On Essentials — Data Warehousing Workshop
- **NHS Leadership Academy:** Mary Seacole Programme (78%, 2018)
- No formal data science qualifications — entirely self-taught

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*This document is a deduplicated merge of `andy_charlwood_career_knowledge.md` and `andy_charlwood_career_knowledge_dump.md`, compiled from conversations spanning March 2024 – February 2026. Where the two sources conflicted, the more detailed/specific version was preferred. The original files are preserved unchanged for reference.*
