2004 - 2007 - Cicely Saunders Institute - King's College London

Staff Biographies
Professor Irene Higginson BMedSci BMBS FFPHM
PhD FRCP
Professor of Palliative Care and Policy,
Head of Department of Palliative Care,
Policy & Rehabilitation, Honorary Consultant
King’s College Hospital
Irene qualified in medicine from the University of
Nottingham and won her PhD from University College
London. She has extensive experience in leading
national and international multidisciplinary collaboration
in palliative care. She has dual training in palliative
medicine and epidemiology/public health having worked
in a wide range of medical settings, hospices and in
public health and health services research. For the past
ten years she has been Head of Department and
Professor of Palliative Care and Policy at King’s College
London and prior to that was Director of Research and
Development in a London health authority, as well as
Senior Lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine. She is currently leading the
assessment strand of one of the two collaboratives in
supportive and palliative care, leading the strand on
assessment and measurement. This collaborative
(COMPASS – Complex Interventions: Assessment, Trials
and Implementation of Services) brings together over 61
Universities and associated hospitals, hospices and
other services in the UK, and seeks to foster collaboration
of research in supportive and palliative, including
end of life, cancer care. In addition, Irene co-ordinated
the production of the WHO guidance on palliative care
(Palliative Care – The Solid Facts, Better Palliative Care
for Older People). This project, undertaken for the WHO
in Europe, in collaboration with the European
Association of Palliative Care, and the European Institute
of Oncology, brought together evidence from over 15
countries and wide ranging literature to provide
guidance on ways to improve palliative care for the
future. Irene is a member of the European Palliative Care
Research Collaborative (EPCRC). She has over 180
scientific papers published in peer review journals, has
published 14 books on palliative and end of life care.
She is an advisor to many governments in research and
policy in palliative care, including recently reviewing for
the Italian Ministry of Health, as well as being an advisor
on the end of life care proposals in the United Kingdom
and led the development of the National Institute of
Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidance for Supportive and
Palliative Care for those affected by cancer. She is
currently leading the scoping exercise for the NHS
Service Delivery and Organisation programme on
identifying the research needs on the delivery and
organisation of generalist services for end of life care.
Professor Irene Higginson
Sarah Baber
Executive Assistant to Professor Higginson /
Department Manager
Sarah is Professor Higginson’s Executive Assistant and
is usually the first point of contact for Professor
Higginson. She is also Department Manager and
manages the administrative staff.
Sarah has a BA English from Sussex University. After
graduating she worked briefly at Kingston University in
the Faculty of Health, in the Curriculum and Quality
Office. She then went onto work at London South Bank
University as a Faculty Quality Assurance Administrator
in the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences. Sarah began
working at King’s College in July 2007.
55