Janet Mackay

Biography

If you want to push Janet Mackay’s buttons, just get her talking about the psychology of health. That’s one of the things that attracted her to working at PHARMAC, where she works in the implementation programmes team. The team provides information for people whose brand of medicine is changing, and provides support for evidence-based prescribing for doctors. They often work with the doctors or nurses who have day-to-day dealings with patients to work out how to make medicine brand changes as easy and effective as possible.

Research Interest

Some recent work PHARMAC has been involved in with Auckland University’s department of psychology has been of particular interest to her. “I’m passionate about the work we’re doing with Auckland University looking at generic medicines. It links in strongly with my interest in psychology. We’re looking at the reasons people are less likely to trust a generic. Their responses are real but the reasons are psychosomatic. It’s really fascinating.”