I am a health services researcher who conducts research focusing on the interface between inequity and palliative and end of life care, clinical uncertainty and decision making and the development and evaluation of complex palliative care interventions.
I have BA in Social Administration, an MSc in Sociology as Applied to Medicine and a PhD in Cancer Studies from King's College London. I previously worked at the Cicely Saunders Institute at King's College London where I developed a programme of work on disadvantaged dying and researching clinical uncertainty. For five years I was Postgraduate Dean for Taught Studies in the School of Medicine and was awarded a Teaching Excellence Award for my undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
I am Professor of Palliative Care and Associate Director of the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre. I have a particular interest in researching the interface between ethnicity, culture and palliative care and also clinical uncertainty and how it manifests itself in end of life care. I also have a tracked record of undertaking research on the development and evaluation of complex interventions using mixed methods research.
I teach research methods as applied to palliative and end of life care as well as psychosocial, cultural and ethical issues.
Research collaborations include a new NIHR RfPB study with colleagues at the University of Cambridge and King's College London.
I currently have three PhD students who are focusing on issues that range from examining the lived experience in symptom cluster in people living with COPD and their impact on health-related quality of life and also development of complex interventions that include advance care planning.