Dr Janet Abrahm received her MD from the University of California at San Francisco in 1973, completed internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and served as a chief resident at Moffitt Hospital (of UCSF). She completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine from 1980-2000. Dr Abrahm built the first palliative care service at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center (PVAMC) and served for several years as Chief of the Medical Service. In 1997 she secured the first NIH-funded Palliative Medicine Fellowship, which in 2003 was competitively renewed. In 2001, Dr Abrahm joined DFCI to build what became the Adult Palliative Care Division of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at DFCI and Brigham and Women's Hospital. For 10 years as Board Member and then officer of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Dr Abrahm helped lead the field to specialty recognition and in 2006, she was named to the ABIM's first test writing committee for the Hospice and Palliative Medicine board examination. She currently is a member of the Adult Palliative Care Division at DFCI and is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Mary Baines trained with Cicely Saunders at St Thomas's Hospital in London. After qualification, she worked for ten years as a General Practitioner before joining the staff at St Christopher's Hospice a few months after it opened. Two years later, she was involved in setting up the first hospice home care service, offering symptom control and support to terminally ill patients and their families.Her seminal research on the pharmacological management of patients with inoperable intestinal obstruction has been published widely. She has written extensively including chapters in four Oxford Textbooks and has presented at numerous international conferences, including giving the first plenary lecture on palliative care at the UICC conference in New Delhi in 1994. Her work in the field of palliative care has been acknowledged with the award of an OBE and an Honorary Doctorate at the University of Greenwich. On her retirement, she was appointed Emeritus Consultant at St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham.
Ira Byock, MD is a leading palliative care physician, author, and public advocate for improving care through the end of life. He is Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and served as Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire from 2003 through July 2013. During the 1990s he was a co-founder and principal investigator for the Missoula Demonstration Project, a community-based organization in Montana dedicated to the research and transformation of end-of-life experience locally, as a demonstration of what is possible nationally. He also served as Director for Promoting Excellence in End-of-Life Care, a national grant program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. As a consistent advocate for the voice and rights of dying patients and their families, he has been a featured guest on numerous US television and radio programmes and received many awards and commendations for this work. He is also a Past President (1997) of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Dr Augusto Caraceni is director of the Palliative Care (pain therapy - rehabilitation) department and Virgilio Floriani Hospice at the National Cancer Institute of Milan. After graduating from medical school at the Università degli Studi di Milano in 1985, he qualified in Neurology and in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Università di Pavia. In 1986, while training with Vittorio Ventafridda in pain therapy and palliative care at the National Cancer Institute of Milan, Dr Caraceni participated in the World Health Organisation programme to test and disseminate the WHO Ladder for cancer pain relief. In 1994, he was Clinical Fellow in Neurology and Palliative care at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Augusto Caraceni served on the board of directors of the Italian Association of Palliative Care and as vice-president of the European Association of Palliative Care. His clinical and research experience includes the neurological complications of cancer, cancer pain and opioid analgesics, neuropathic pain in cancer, pain assessment and measurement and symptom control in advanced cancer, with a special interest in delirium.
Professor Carlos Centeno Cortés, works as a consultant in Palliative Medicine at the University of Navarra Clinic, with special interest in clinical research topics such as fatigue and symptom evaluation. Since 2002, Dr Centeno has led a European working group that studies the national development of palliative care across the European Union and with the European Association for Palliative Care has published the Atlas Palliative Care in Europe and more recently, a similar Atlas for South America. Dr Centeno currently directs a new research program called ATLANTES, at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), University of Navarra, which applies the approach of Humanities and Social Sciences to advanced diseases and palliative care. Dr Centeno also teaches postgraduate courses in Palliative Medicine at both the University of Navarra and other universities.
Mark Cobb grew up in Manchester and after studying for an engineering degree at Lancaster University worked on a development project in Swaziland. He returned to the UK to study for ministry in the Church of England at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, and trained in the Diocese of London where he began to specialise in healthcare chaplaincy working at the Marie Curie Hospice and the Royal Free Hospital. From there he furthered his training and experience in acute healthcare and palliative care at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and Macmillan Palliative Care Unit. He moved to Sheffield as head of the Chaplaincy department at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital and has gone on to become a Clinical Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where he heads a directorate of over 400 allied health professionals. Mark's education across science and the humanities enables him to span disciplinary boundaries and engage with different fields of enquiry. His primary academic interests are in palliative care, for which he was awarded a PhD from the University of Liverpool, and his research portfolio includes spirituality, health service design and medical ethics.
Professor David Currow initially trained as a physician in internal medicine and undertook sub-specialization in palliative medicine. At the same time, he completed a Master of Public Health. He was the foundation Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Australia, the Australian government's national cancer control agency. He now leads the New South Wales government's agenda in improving coordination of cancer control through improved service delivery models, reduction in risk of cancer through lifestyle change, evidence-based population screening and targeted research investment. He continues as Professor of Palliative and Supportive Services at Flinders University, Adelaide. He is the principal investigator on the Australian government-funded Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative, the world's largest clinical trials group in palliative care. Previous roles include national presidencies of two peak bodies, Palliative Care Australia and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia.
Professor Julia Downing is an experienced palliative care nurse, educationalist and researcher, with a PhD that evaluated palliative care training in rural Uganda. She has been working within palliative care for 24 years, with fourteen of those working internationally in Uganda, Africa and Eastern Europe. She is an Honorary Professor at Makerere University, Kampala, a Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University and an International Palliative Care Consultant working with the International Children's Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) and as part of an EU funded project to develop palliative care in Serbia. She has extensive experience in research, presenting at conferences and writing for publication, and is on the editorial board of the International Journal of Palliative Nursing (IJPN). Professor Downing serves on the Boards of several international NGOs including the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care, is on the Board of Hospice in the Weald, and APCA UK, and is Vice Chair of the Scientific Committee of the International Children's Palliative Care Network. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow with the Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, at King's College London, England. In 2006, she was the recipient of the IJPN's Development Award.
Betty Ferrell, Ph.D, R.N. has been in oncology nursing for 37 years and has focused her clinical expertise and research in pain management, quality of life and palliative care. Ferrell is a professor and research scientist at City of Hope in Los Angeles. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and she has over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals and texts. She is principal investigator of a Program Project funded by the National Cancer Institute on "Palliative Care for Quality of Life and Symptom Concerns in Lung Cancer " and principal investigator of the "End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium " project. Dr Ferrell is a member of the board of scientific advisors of the National Cancer Institute and is chairperson of the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care.
Dr Kathleen M. Foley is an attending neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. She is also professor of neurology, neuroscience, and clinical pharmacology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and previous director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Cancer Pain Research and Education at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Her career has focused on the assessment and treatment of patients with cancer pain. With her colleagues, she has developed scientific guidelines for the use of analgesic drug therapy through clinic pharmacologic studies of opioid drugs. Kathy holds the chair of the Society of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Pain Research. She was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences for her national and international efforts in the treatment of patients with cancer pain. She is past director of the Open Society Foundations Project on Death in America, whose goal was to transform the culture of dying in the United States through initiatives in research, scholarship, and clinical care. She has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Honor from the American Cancer Society, the David Karnovsky Award from American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Frank Netter Award from the American Academy of Neurology. She is currently the medical director of the International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Public Health Program, working to advance palliative care globally.
Dr Charles F. von Gunten received a Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1978. He then earned a PhD in Biochemistry and an MD degree with honors from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado in 1988. He subsequently pursued residency training in Internal Medicine, followed by subspecialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago. As Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Medical School until 1999, he directed programs in hospice and palliative care, education, and research. Until recently, he was Clinical Professor of Medicine, at University of California, San Diego where he was a member of the NIH-designated Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition he was the Provost, Institute for Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice, a teaching and research affiliate of the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University. In 2012, he moved to Columbus, Ohio to become Vice President, Medical Affairs, Hospice and Palliative Medicine for the OhioHealth system. He has held an established investigator award from the National Cancer Institute and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. In 2013, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine voted him amongst the 10 top 'visionaries' in palliative medicine today.
Dr Liz Gwyther was born in Zimbabwe and studied medicine at the University of Cape Town graduating in 1979 with MB ChB. She worked as a GP in Zimbabwe and South Africa and qualified as Family Physician (FCFP) in 1993. She started in hospice care on a voluntary basis in 1993 and obtained MSc in Palliative Medicine at the University of Wales, College of Medicine in 2003. She is CEO of Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA); a director of the Networking AIDS Community of South Africa (NACOSA); the African Palliative Care Association, of ehospice and of the Pain Society of South Africa and a Trustee of the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA). Liz is a senior lecturer at the University of Cape Town where she heads the Palliative Care team within the School of Public Health and Family Medicine. She is the convener for the postgraduate programmes in Palliative Medicine and is responsible for research supervision and support for publications of the postgraduate students. Her special interests are women's health and palliative care (in particular palliative care in HIV/AIDS) and human rights in health care. In 2007, she was awarded the SA Medical Association's Gender Award for Human Rights in Health and the SA Institute of Health Managers Leadership in Health Systems award. She is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management published in the USA.
Jo Hockley trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London in the early 1970s and has worked in specialist palliative care for over 30 years, most recently as Nurse Consultant at St. Christopher's Hospice in London. She has had a passion for disseminating palliative care knowledge within generalist settings. During her career she has set up two hospital-based palliative care teams (St Bartholomew's Hospital, London and Western General Hospital, Edinburgh) and more recently a Care Home Project Team serving over 100 care homes at St Christopher's Hospice, based on results from her PhD. Jo has published widely both on the strategic development of hospital-based palliative care teams and palliative care for older people in care homes. She has recently been awarded an OBE for her work to palliative care nursing.
Professor Peter Hudson is a registered nurse with more than twenty-five years' experience in palliative care practice, education and research. He is a Board member of Palliative Care Australia and was a Director of the board of The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care for six years. Peter is a co-founder and Chair of the International Palliative Care Family Carer Research Collaboration which operates under the auspices of the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) and was co-leader of a EAPC Taskforce aimed at enhancing support provided to family carers. Peter is Director of the Centre for Palliative Care (St Vincent's Hospital and Collaborative Centre of The University of Melbourne, Australia), Professor (Hon.) at The University of Melbourne and Professor of Palliative Care at Queen's University, Belfast (UK). The Centre for Palliative Care (CPC) ( www.centreforpallcare.org <http://www.centreforpallcare.org> ) has a state-wide role in palliative care education and research in Victoria, and focuses on the development of evidence-based practice, through research and education with networks and collaborative projects extending nationally and internationally. Peter has received several awards including a Postdoctoral Research Award (Nurses' Board of Victoria); Presentation Award from the Third Research Forum of the European Association for Palliative Care and the Premiers' award for evidence based practice. He is affiliated with more than 15 professional national and international organisations in palliative care, nursing and other health-related fields.
Professor Mari Lloyd-Williams graduated from Leicester University medical school. and completed her higher training in palliative medicine at University of Leicester Hospitals and LOROS Hospice. She was appointed Consultant and Honorary Senior Lecturer to the University of Leicester Hospitals Trust and LOROS Hospice in 2000. In 2002 she was appointed as Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and in 2003 was promoted to a personal chair within the School of Population, Community and Behaviour in recognition of her research experience and portfolio. She is lead and chair of the Academic Palliative and Supportive Care Studies Group within the University of Liverpool which over the last 5 years has secured in excess of 5.3 million pounds of research grant income including the prestigious Supportive and Palliative Care research collaborative and also DoH and research council funding. The current research programme and portfolio includes screening and interventions for depression; the development of randomised controlled trials in palliative care and symptom burden in non-malignant disease and specifically for patients with dementia. In 2007, she was appointed by the National Assembly for Wales onto the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and in 2008 she was appointed onto the UKHEAC committee chaired by Professor Sir John Tooke. A former member of fitness to practice panels for the General Medical Council, she is also chair and member of several external committees relating to health and education.
Dr Anne Merriman was born into an Irish Catholic family in Liverpool, where she spent her childhood. She went to Ireland in 1953 where she joined a Religious Order, The Medical Missionaries of Mary and was enrolled in Medical School at University College Dublin. After qualification in 1963, she completed an internship in the International Missionary Training Hospital in Drogheda. She subsequently worked in Ireland, Nigeria and Scotland, completing her MRCPI and MRCP (UK Edinburgh) as well as diplomas in child health and tropical medicine. Later she was made Fellows of both Royal Colleges of Physicians in Ireland and Edinburgh. After specialising in geriatric medicine, she identified and encouraged meeting the needs for palliative care among the elderly in her practice in Whiston Hospital in Merseyside. She subsequently worked in Malaysia and then Singapore, where she developed the idea of affordable powdered morphine, reconstituted into liquid, for use in the home, which she later took to Africa. Anne has spent 33 years working in Africa. In 1992, she founded Hospice Africa with a vision to bring palliative care to all in need in SSA. The model was commenced in Uganda [HAU] in 1993. The model introduced a palliative and end-of-life care programme, based on control of severe pain through access to affordable morphine, which is now freely available in Uganda. This has since been introduced to many other countries in Africa. Currently, as Director of International Programmes, she has supported similar initiatives, adapted to each countries' economic and cultural needs, across the continent of Africa, including Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda and Sudan and more recently initiatives in Togo and DRC. Anne received the MBE in 2003 for palliative care services to Uganda and is a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr Daniela Mosoiu graduated medical school in 1991, and worked in medical oncology and palliative care. In 1995, she became part of the Hospice "Casa Sperantei " team - the first hospice in Romania. In 1997, The Study Center for Palliative Care was opened in Brasov and she became responsible for education and continuous professional education for medical and allied healthcare professionals. She has contributed to the training of over 10,000 professionals within Romania and abroad and became a national trainer in palliative care, accredited by Health Ministry. In this role, she has fostered greater palliative care education opportunities for Eastern Europe, supported by the Open Society Institute (O.S.I.). In 2013, University Transilvania Brasov created the first palliative care academic position in Romania and Dr. Mosoiu was appointed as Associate Professor coordinating the palliative care multidisciplinary masters programme.She is co-founder of the National Association of Palliative Care. In 2000, she headed the working group that brought recognition of palliative care as a medical sub-specialty in Romania and at present she is appointed as national coordinator for PC sub-specialty for doctors. As Vice President in the National Commission for Palliative Care and Pain Therapy, she contributed to the changing the legal framework regarding prescription and use of opioids in Romania and in the process of implementing the new legislation.
Irene Renzenbrink is an Australian social worker who has been involved in the development of palliative care and bereavement support services in Australia since the late 1970's. She is listed in the Who's Who of Australian women and a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement. For over 30 years Irene has had a particular interest in the complex organizational, professional and personal variables involved in burn out, compassion fatigue and related phenomena. In recent years Irene has added art therapy and expressive arts therapies to her repertoire of skills and continues to teach, write and conduct research in the area of palliative care.
Professor Mary Vachon is a nurse, clinical sociologist, psychotherapist, researcher, educator and cancer survivor. She is currently a Consultant and Psychotherapist in Private Practice, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and Clinical Consultant at Wellspring. She is a graduate of Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing from which she received an Alumnae Achievement Award in 1998. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University, her Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Toronto and her PhD from York University, Toronto.She is the recipient of many awards including the Mara Morgenson Flaherty Lectureship of the Oncology Nursing Society for Excellence in Psychosocial Oncology in 1985; the Dorothy Ley Award for Excellence in Palliative Care from the Ontario Palliative Care Association in April 1997; the National (US) Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's 2001 Distinguished Researcher Award and in 2008, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Journal of Palliative Nursing
