Dr Chris Threapleton is a Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and General Internal Medicine.
In his academic role, Dr Threapleton is the module leader for the first and second year modules 'Drugs in Healthcare' on the Clinical Pharmacology BSc. He is responsible for the students' development of clinical trials skills. His other roles include supervising research students and personal tuition.
His research and clinical interests include polypharmacy and multimorbidity.
In the NHS, Dr Threapleton leads the Polypharmacy Service at St George's Hospital, responsible for the safe and effective treatment of patients with complex health needs.
Dr Threapleton graduated from Newcastle University with a BSc (Hons) Psychology in 2009, and MBBS Medicine and Surgery in 2013. He began his medical career in Newcastle before relocating to London in 2015.
Dr Threapleton joined St George's, University of London in 2017 as a Teaching Fellow, where he was responsible for delivering pharmacology and prescribing education to T, P and F year medical students. He received an Excellence in Healthcare Education in 2018. In 2019 he was awarded with a Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare and Biomedical Education and was made a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Threapleton was part of a small team that established the Clinical Pharmacology BSc at St George's. From 2018 to 2020, he was the module leader of Drugs in Healthcare, an 18-month module about the structure of the NHS and how healthcare professionals diagnose conditions and choose the most appropriate medicines. He developed and delivered curriculum content, including lectures and small group tutorials, practical sessions, and assessments. This work was acknowledged by the Education Excellence Team Award for Collaborative Programme Design and Innovation in 2020.
From 2019 to 2022, Dr Threapleton served as Chair of the Registrar Sub-Committee of the British Pharmacological Society, shaping training for registrars and spearheading initiatives to raise the profile of the specialty. His contributions included setting up national virtual training for registrars, overseeing the development of careers pages on the BPS website, organising annual competitions for medical students and junior doctors, and coordinating clinical pharmacology roadshows for foundation and internal medicine trainees. This work was acknowledged with an invitation to a Fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society in 2022.
As a member of the Clinical Pharmacology Skills Alliance, he played a key role in shaping the ten-year workforce strategy. In 2020, as part of the Primary Care Strategy and NHS Contracts Group, he contributed significantly to the creation of a new contract outlining primary care responsibilities for managing patients with polypharmacy (NHS England, 2020). Additionally, he has been actively involved in policies and publications by the British Pharmacological Society on topics such as healthy ageing, climate change, and the UK research strategy.
Dr Threapleton has a keen interest in the management of patients with complex chronic conditions and multiple long term medicines. He completed a PhD in 2024 focused on understanding the development of problematic polypharmacy and the role that clinical pharmacologists could play in the management of these complex patients. As part of this work, and supported by Professor Emma Baker, he established the St George's Polypharmacy Service, the first of its kind in the UK.
From 2023 to 2024, Dr Threapleton worked at St Thomas' Hospital in order to gain expertise in the management of hypertension, poisoning and acute medicine. He completed joint Higher Specialty Training in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and General Internal Medicine in 2024. He returned to St George's in October 2024 and now divides his time between the Polypharmacy Service and his teaching responsibilities within the Clinical Pharmacology BSc.
Robinson LJ, Stevens LH, Threapleton CJ, Vainiute J, McAllister-Williams RH, Gallagher P. Effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on attention and memory. Acta Psychol (Amst). 2012.
Walker RW, Churm D, Dewhurst F, Samuel M, Ramsell A, Lawrie C, Hill J, Threapleton CJ, Wood B, Gray WK. Palliative care in people with idiopathic Parkinson's disease who die in hospital, BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2014 Mar;4(1):64-7.
Threapleton CJ, Janjua S, Fortescue R, Baker EH. Head-to-head oral prophylactic antibiotic therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019;5(5):CD013024
Kimpton JE, Carey IM, Threapleton CJD, et al. Longitudinal exposure of English primary care patients to pharmacogenomic drugs: An analysis to inform design of pre-emptive pharmacogenomic testing. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2019;85(12):2734‐2746.
Khong TK, Threapleton CJD. Discharging doctors do not reliably predict risk of medication-related harm. Drug Ther Bull. 2019;57(7):102‐103.
Khong TK, Threapleton CJD. Prescribing of anticholinergic medicines to patients initiating dementia medicines. Drug Ther Bull. 2020;58(6):83‐84.
Threapleton CJD, Kimpton JE, Carey IM, et al. Development of a structured clinical pharmacology review for specialist support for management of complex polypharmacy in primary care. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2020;86(7):1326-1335.
Threapleton CJD, Harris T, Baker EH. Stratifying patients for polypharmacy interventions: The case for a new biomarker?. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2022;88(4):1515-1517.