Lara Pivodic

Lara is a PhD Training Fellow in the Marie Curie Initial Training Network EURO IMPACT (European Intersectorial and Multidisciplinary Palliative Care Research Training). Lara holds an MSc in psychology from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her home institution is Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium. As part of EURO IMPACT, she has been appointed as a Visiting Research Associate to the Institute for six months, from September 2012 to March 2013.

Lara’s PhD focuses on the use and evaluation of palliative care for cancer patients in different European countries. Her research includes cross-national comparisons of the number of people accessing palliative care, places of care and places of death as well as family carers’ opinions of care received by people with cancer at the end of life.

At our Institute, Lara will work on data collected through the QUALYCARE study to examine family carers’ evaluations of end-of-life care that people with cancer received at home. 

 

Despina Anagnostou

Despina Anagnostou is visiting the department to work on her PhD.  She completed her first degree in nursing in Athens, Greece and was awarded an MSc in advanced nursing in cancer and palliative care from the University of Edinburgh. Following her undergraduate degree, Despina worked in several clinical settings in Athens before she came to the UK.
 
She is doing her PhD at King's College London, looking at cancer patients' experience of their illness and care at the end of life in the Greek setting.  While visiting the department she will be analysing data and writing up her thesis.  Despina is being supported in her studies by the Red Cross Hospital of Athens and has a State Scholarship from the Foundation of  Greece.
 
Following completion of her PhD it is Despina's ambition to help advance the care of patients with a life threatening illness and also to help with the establishment of palliative care services in Greece.

 

Previous Visitors

Brian Cassel

Visiting Senior Lecturer, King's College London Fulbright Scholar 2011-2012

(Home institution / role: Cancer Informatics and Palliative Care Research Director, Virginia Commonwealth University, Massey Cancer Center, Richmond, Virginia, USA)

As the Fulbright – King’s College London Scholar, Brian is working at the Institute on comparisons of the role that financial and economic issues play in the development and sustainability of palliative care in the US and the UK. Brian received his BS and PhD in Psychology, and has worked in healthcare outcomes evaluation for 20+ years in a variety of healthcare settings in the US. His recent research focuses on the clinical and financial outcomes of cancer services and palliative care programs. He is a member of the Palliative Care Leadership Center at Virginia Commonwealth, training more than 150 specialist teams from hospitals across the US in establishing and sustaining palliative care programs.

Professor Harvey Chochinov

Professor of Psychiatry, Community Health Sciences, and Family Medicine (Division of Palliative Care), University of Manitoba, Canada. Director of the Manitoba Palliative Care Research Unit, Cancer Care Manitoba.
 
One of Professor Chochinov’s innovative areas of work has been the development of dignity therapy. This is a short intervention and seeks to address the existential and psychological distress of people near the end of life. It aims to improve their sense of worth, attain a sense of peace and promote death with dignity.
 
Professor Chochinov visited the department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation in September to carry out three days of training in dignity therapy with researchers working on two new studies looking at the feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness of dignity therapy in the UK. One study, funded by Dunhill Medical Trust, focuses on residents of care home residents. The other study, funded by Dimbleby Cancer Care, focuses of people with advanced cancer.

Dr Scott Moreland

Dr Scott Moreland works with Measure Evaluation at the University of  North Carolina and is part of the team evaluating PEPFAR-funded HIV services in Kenya and Uganda; a study that is being headed by Dr Richard Harding here in the department.
 
As well as his role in facilitating the dissemination and utilisation of study results through Measure, Scott is a health economist by training. During his visit to King's in September he worked with colleagues from the department and the IOP on analysis of the evaluation economics data, collection of which were recently completed. The evaluation findings will be available in spring 2009.

Dr Steve Pantilat

Senior Fulbright Scholar
Central Sydney Palliative Care Service
University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Alan M. Kates and John M. Burnard Endowed Chair in Palliative Care
Director, Palliative Care Program and Palliative Care Leadership Center
University of California, San Francisco
 
Dr Steve Pantilat visited the department in May/June 2008. During that time Dr Pantilat met with members of the department and clinical teams at St Thomas' and King's College Hospitals. He also attended the EAPC conference in Trondheim. On 4th June Dr Pantilat presented the monthly Compass Collaborative Open Seminar entitled 'Palliative Care for People with Heart Failure'.