wolfson-team

People

Our palliative care research experts

The Centre brings together a team of high-profile world-class researchers, who are building an international reputation for their focus on improving the quality of life for people with life limiting illness and reducing the current inequalities in access to palliative care.

Board of Directors

The Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre has a Board of Directors drawn from Hull York Medical School and the School of Health and Social Work in the University of Hull.

 

Invited and elected members

The Board also includes:

  • Elected representation post-doctoral researcher: Sophie Pask
  • Doctoral researcher representation: Mary Kimani

Centre staff


Affiliated staff

  • Dr Emma Wolverson – Senior Lecturer Ageing and Dementia (Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Hull)
  • Christina Ramsenthaler – Honorary Senior Lecturer for statistics and methodology (Hull York Medical School)


Current PhD researchers

Find out more about the research undertaken by our PhD researchers on our postgraduate study page.

  • Kate Binnie – PhD student
  • Maddie Bond – PhD student
  • Lucia Crowther – PhD student
  • Jordan Curry – PhD student
  • Susanne de Wolf-Linder – PhD student
  • Elisabeth Gulliksen – PhD student
  • Mark Kitching – PhD student, primary supervision in the IMPACCT group at UTS Sydney and co-supervised in the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre
  • Mary Kimani – PhD student
  • Ugochinyere Nwulu – PhD student
  • Sophie Pask – PhD student
  • Mike Patterson – PhD student
  • Yinyin Pho – PhD student, primary supervision in the IMPACCT group at UTS Sydney and co-supervised in the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre
  • Alex Wray – PhD student

 

Completed postgraduate degree students

Find out more about the completed research undertaken by our PhD researchers on our postgraduate study page.

  • Dr Naima Benelhaj – PhD
  • Dr Alex Bullock – Yorkshire Cancer Network Doctoral Training Fellow, Nutrition
  • Dr Sunitha Daniel – PhD
  • Sushma Datla – MSc
  • Dr Helene Elliott-Button – PhD
  • Dr Andrew Gill – MSc, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow
  • Dr Debbie Hukins – PhD
  • Dr Catriona Jackson – MSc, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow
  • Dr Mary Kariuki – PhD
  • Dr Gordon McKenzie – PhD
  • Dr Zivarna Murphy – PhD
  • Dr Kim Sein – PhD

 

Academic clinical trainees

Current trainees:

  • Dr Tilly Barnes-Harris (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Sonya Bushell (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Ishbel Luke (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Stephanie Meddick-Dyson (Academic Clinical Fellow in Palliative Medicine)
  • Dr Anna Newton-Clarke (Academic Foundation Programme)

Previous trainees:

  • Dr Emily Boam (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Catriona Jackson (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Sean O’Donnell (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Amy Gadoud (Clinical Lecturer)
  • Dr Rutendo Gambe (Academic Foundation Programme, now Academic Clinical Fellow)
  • Dr Andrew Gill (Academic Clinical Fellow)
  • Dr Sam Gnanapragasam (Academic Foundation Programme)
  • Dr Jamilla Hussain (Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre) 

Visiting Fellows and Honorary appointments

  • Professor David Currow, Honorary Professor of Palliative Care Research at Hull York Medical School
  • Dr Jamilla Hussain, Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre
  • Dr Roberta Jordon, Consultant at York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, is Honorary Senior Lecturer with the Hull York Medical School

  • Dr Christina Ramsenthaler, from the University of Freiburg in Germany, is an Honorary Lecturer in Statistics and Methodology at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, and works with us on several health services research projects in palliative care’ to ‘Dr Christina Ramsenthaler, from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, in Zurich, Switzerland, is an Honorary Lecturer in Statistics and Methodology at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, and works with us on several health services research projects in palliative care 
  • Camille Short, Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences and Melbourne School of Health Sciences (jointly appointed), University of Melbourne 

Details of our previous visitors are available on our be a visiting researcher page.

International External Advisory Scientific Committee

The Advisory Scientific Committee advises and supports the Directors and the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, and provides external review reflecting the multi-disciplinary nature of palliative care research.

Particular skills encompass nursing, social work, implementation science/knowledge mobilisation, respiratory care and wider aspects of palliative care including service delivery.

Tracey Bleakley

Chief Executive of the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board.

Tracey is the new Chief Executive of the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board, accountable for finance and performance across the region's health and care sector. Prior to this she was CEO of Hospice UK and Dying Matters for six years and has a wide career covering engineering, management consultancy, public health, policing and education. Tracey is also Chair of Primadonna, a Suffolk based literary organisation celebrating brilliant writing, music and ideas from under-represented artists and voices.

Annette Boaz (Committee Chair)

Professor of Health and Social Care Policy, Department of Health Services Research and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Annette is a social scientist evaluating the impact of research on policy and practice. She has expertise in service improvement research, patient involvement in research and in patient experience research. Annette is Deputy Chair of the UK Implementation Society. Until January 2019 she edited the leading journal in the field: Evidence & Policy and recently contributed to a special issue of the journal Research Evaluation on research impact assessment.

Daisy Janssen

Elderly care and palliative care physician, Department of Research & Education, CIRO, Centre of Expertise for Chronic Organ Failure, Horn, and Research Co-ordinator, Centre of Expertise for Palliative care at the Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Daisy’s research interests include the palliative care and psychosocial needs of people with advanced non-malignant disease.

Dr Kathleen Lindell

Dr Kathleen Oare Lindell, PhD, RN, ATSF, FAAN is Associate Professor of Nursing and the Mary Swain Endowed Chair in Palliative Care Health. 

Dr Lindell is a graduate of the St. Francis General Hospital Professional School of Nursing (Diploma RN), and the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing [BSN, MSN (Pulmonary Specialty), and PhD]. 

Dr Lindell was a Pulmonary Clinical Nurse Specialist at the PENN Lung Center and participated in development of evidence-based programs to advance health of patients with lung disease. She also directed patient support and education at the University of Pittsburgh Dorothy P. & Richard P. Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease at UPMC becoming the first nurse on the faculty at the PITT School of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, & Critical Care Medicine with a joint appointment in the School of Nursing.

Her path of research is directed toward improving the quality of life for patients with advanced lung disease, specifically Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and their family caregivers. This research focus developed from experience working to improve support available to patients with IPF and their caregivers, assuring patients and caregivers are aware of the most recent education available to improve their knowledge, and engaging in advocacy efforts to increase awareness of this disease. As a result of this work, she developed a nurse-led palliative care intervention entitled “A Program of SUPPORT?” for patients with advanced lung disease. Her research funding focuses on palliative care knowledge and preparedness in patients with advanced lung disease and their family caregivers. This work resulted in 37 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Lindell is actively involved in the American Thoracic Society and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation (PFF), having served on both of their Board of Directors. At present, she is a member of the PFF Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee.

Matthew Maddocks

Dr Maddocks is a Senior Lecturer in Health Services Research and specialist physiotherapist at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London.

His research interests span palliative care, rehabilitation, muscle related disorders, and functional assessment. He chairs the London hub of the Council for Allied Health Professions research, and the Advanced disease and End of Life Care subgroup of the National Cancer Research Institute Supportive and Palliative Care Clinical Studies Group.

Jill Manthorpe

Professor of Social Work, Director of the NIHR Social Care Workforce Research Unit, King's College London.

In January 2019 she will move to be Director of the new NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit. Jill’s areas of research interest span health and wellbeing of older people with frailty, dementia and who are part of hard to reach groups. She works with the Department of Health and Social Care on several subjects and closely with several social care employers to link research and practice. Other areas of research include child safeguarding,  gambling and homelessness. She is a Trustee of the Centre for Policy on Ageing and of the Orders of St John Care Trust. In addition she is a NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Internationally she is the SR Nathan Professor of Social Work at the National University of Singapore and holds visiting chairs at Ulster University and the University of Melbourne. 

Professor Alicia O’Cathain

Alicia is Professor of Health Services Research at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), The University of Sheffield.

She is Director of the Medical Care Research Unit, which focuses on the development and evaluation of complex interventions and services in healthcare, social care and third sector organisations. Her work has focused on helping to develop interventions and evaluate them, leading the qualitative research and process evaluations. She also uses mixed methods to understand service users' experiences of care, and is currently exploring how best to help patients to manage minor health problems. Professor O’Cathain has written extensively on methodology (how best to undertake mixed methods research, more recently on qualitative methods with randomised controlled trials, and how to develop complex interventions).

Jane Phillips

Head School of Nursing Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane and Emeritus Professor of Palliative Nursing at University of Technology Sydney.

Professor Jane Phillips is Head School of Nursing Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane and Emeritus Professor of Palliative Nursing at University of Technology Sydney with experience in delivering evidenced-based palliative care across diverse settings, including rural and regional Australia.

Professor Phillips has led and evaluated complex health service reforms and has led a number of major cancer and palliative care reform initiatives at the local and national levels. Her research aims to improve care outcomes for people in their last year of life by strengthening the nexus between research, policy and practice. She is currently evaluating non-pharmacological interventions to improve pain, breathlessness and delirium; looking at health services that can improve care for older people with cancer; and undertaking translational research in the areas of pain management and symptom management.  She has developed and evaluated nurse-coordinated models of palliative care and has extensive experience in cancer and chronic disease nursing and research. She currently supervises 14 doctoral students.

Professor Phillips is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, Immediate Past President of Palliative Care Nurses Australia. She is Chair of both the National Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative Trials Management Group and the Clinical Oncology Society Australia (COSA), Palliative Care Group.

Lesley Turner

Lesley Turner has a background in Law having practiced for a number of years as a Defendant Clinical Negligence Litigator and Head of Facilities at the International Law Firm DAC Beachcroft LLP. In 2005 she was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer and underwent a radical mastectomy with axillary clearance. 

Lesley has been a member of the National Cancer Research Institute’s Supportive and Palliative Care Clinical Studies Group, and sits as a lay member of the NCRI Breast Clinical Studies Sub Group working on symptom management issues. She is also an active member of the NCRI Consumer Forum, and Independent Cancer Patients’ Voice.

She is a Member of Breast Cancer Now’s Tissue Bank Advisory Council, and a Member of the Breast Cancer Now’s Catalyst Grant Committee which has funded 17 studies to date worth a total value of approximately £5.8 million.

She is also a Co-Applicant on a number of funded trials and a member of numerous Trial Steering Committees.

 

Past members of the International External Advisory Scientific Committee

John Hansen-Flaschen

Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine and Founding Director, Harron Lung Center, Perelman School of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. USA

John has practiced critical care as well as pulmonary medicine for more than 30 years. He is a pulmonary and critical care physician and the former long-term head of a leading Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Division. He was editor of the Annals of the American Thoracic Society between 2012 and 2017. His scholarly interests focus on alleviating the suffering of patients with advanced lung disease including those with chronic respiratory failure.

Bill Noble

Bill was past Executive Medical Director, Marie Curie, London and Honorary Consultant Physician at the Sheffield Macmillan Unit for Palliative Care and the Northern General Hospital.

Bill was the charity’s lead on medical matters, clinical governance and palliative care research including oversight of the three Marie Curie Research Institutes (Cardiff, University College London and Liverpool Universities). Past President of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland (2007 to 2010). He was also the inaugural Editor-in Chief of the BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care journal.

Trevor Sheldon

Professor of Health Services Research, Institute of Population Health Sciences, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry

Trevor was Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of York (2007 – 2012) and Dean of the Hull York Medical School (2013 – 2016). His publications and research specialities include the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of healthcare and public health interventions (including health care quality and the measurement and management of health care performance; policy development and evaluation; resource allocation in health care and the public sector; research methods including evidence synthesis and experimental evaluation of complex interventions.