Jill Rasmussen, MBChB, MRCGP, FFPM
(England, United Kingdom), Treasurer-Elect

I obtained my medical degree in Manchester in 1972 and began my medical career with a residency focussed on primary care. During the early eighties I developed an interest in clinical research that culminated in my joining the pharmaceutical industry in 1983 where I was mainly involved in clinical development of therapeutics in psychiatry and neurology initially in Europe and later for four years in the US. This experience made me acutely aware of the tensions between patients’ needs and pharmaceutical interests and the need to improve communication between the two. In addition I experienced the regulatory view as a medical assessor in the UK Medicines Control Agency, which reinforced my view that patient needs will best be served less by company and bureaucratic isolation and more by genuine dialogue. 

In 1994 I rejoined the National Health Service and simultaneously set up an independent CNS consultancy, psynapse, which was and remains staffed by myself and my husband with administrative support. In the NHS, I am a primary care specialist in learning disability and psychiatric illness in adults and elderly. 

In psynapse I offer strategic advice to developers of CNS therapeutics, assist venture capital banks with “due diligence” assessments of proposals for investment in CNS therapeutic development and work with various groups to develop educational and e-learning materials for patients, primary care workers and specialists in psychiatric and neurological disorders. I am also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of a number of pharma and biotech companies. Since 2003 I have been a council member of the British Association of Psychopharmacology, and have recently been appointed as the Director of the UK National Neuroscience Research Institute. 

Dr. Rasmussen has served on the Board of Directors since 2004. She can be reached at Jill.Rasmussen@psynapse-consulting.com.

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