A/Prof Rigby has special interests in geriatric pharmacotherapy, deprescribing, health behaviour change and asthma/COPD management, regularly conducts medication review services (Home Medicine Reviews) in collaboration with GPs in a medical centre, as well as providing education to pharmacists, general practitioners, nurses, nurse practitioners and consumers.
Over the last 20 years Debbie has served on numerous committees for pharmacy organisations including as Chair and Director of the Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy (AACP), national vice-president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) and a PSA Qld Branch committee member. She is currently the Chair of the PSA Interdisciplinary Team-Based Care Communities of Specialty Interest (CSI) and is on the Leadership Group of the Respiratory Care CSI.
A/Prof Rigby is a Fellow of PSA, Australian College of Pharmacy (ACP), Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and a Life Fellow of American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP).
Academic appointments include Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Queensland and Griffith University, and a Clinical Associate Professor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She is a member of the QUT Bachelor of Pharmacy Course Advisory Group.
A/Prof Rigby also sits on numerous advisory boards and committees including: DVA Veteran’s MATES Practitioner Reference Group, International Pharmacists for Anticoagulation Care Taskforce (iPACT), Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) Medication Safety Oversight Committee, Active Ingredient Prescribing Advisory Group and National Quality Use of Medicines Project Advisory Group, Lung Foundation Australia COPD Clinical Advisory Committee and Primary Care COPD Advisory Committee, MIMS Australia Advisory Board, Glaucoma Australia Pharmacy Committee, Australian Pharmaceutical Formulary (APF) Editorial Board, Australian Deprescribing Network (ADeN), Deprescribing Taskforce, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP)
In 2001, She was awarded the PSA Australian Pharmacist of the Year, in 2002 the PSA Qld Bowl of Hygeia, the inaugural 2008 recipient of the AACP Consultant Pharmacist Award and in 2016 awarded the Australian Clinical Pharmacy Award by SHPA. In 2020, A/Prof Rigby was the first female awarded the PSA Lifetime Achievement Award.
