Speakers

B | C | D | F | H | J | K | L | M | N | P | R | S | T | V

BRIGGS, LINDA

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, Inc., La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

With 25 years of nursing experience as a critical care staff nurse, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, and educator, Linda Briggs joined the Gundersen Health System in 1999 to provide leadership in the development and dissemination of the internationally recognized program, Respecting Choices. She has been privileged to consult with healthcare leaders, organizations and communities around the world, providing education and support in implementing the principles of effective and sustainable advance care planning programs. Her clinical and research interests have focused on the disease-specific planning needs of patients with advanced illness and their families. Briggs has led the development of the Respecting Choices curriculum, co-authored several Respecting Choices manuals and programs, and has published numerous articles regarding advance care planning and end-of-life care.top

CHUNG, IRWIN C.A.

Office, Agency for Integrated Care, Singapore

Dr Irwin C A Chung is a family physician by training and currently serves as Deputy Chief, Care Integration Division and Consultant to Home& Primary Care Division in the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC). The AIC was incorporated in 2008 under the Ministry of Health (MOH), Singapore, as the principal coordinating body for patient transitions across the healthcare continuum and it also takes on the role as sector developer for intermediate and long-term care services in the country. Dr Chung oversees the development of various community-based and end-of-life care projects funded by the MOH, leads the Advance Care Planning National Office and supports work arising from various national initiatives in eldercare including community eldercare services, rehabilitation services, care assessment development and case management services. He has previously held clinical leadership positions in primary care and helmed clinical services at Ang Mo Kio –Thye Hua Kwan Hospital, a leading community hospital in the country, from 2009 to 2012. To date, he sits on the MOH-commissioned Primary Care Professional Advisory Committee and various workgroups in Clinical Quality Improvement; he also holds adjunct teaching positions in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS), Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School and the James Cook University School of Medicine & Dentistry. His clinical practice remains in primary care (he still runs a part-time public practice), clinical teaching and quality improvement work.top

CLAYTON, JOSEPHINE

Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia / HammondCare Palliative & Supportive Care Service, Greenwich Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Josephine is a Palliative Medicine Physician for HammondCare’s Palliative and Supportive Care Service, based at Greenwich and Royal North Shore Hospitals in Sydney, Australia and Associate Professor of Palliative Care, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. Josephine leads a research program that aims to enable better communication about end-of-life issues, including the development and evaluation of patient- and clinician- based interventions for improving communication. She is currently contributing to various research projects regarding advance care planning in different settings. She also has a strong interest in teaching communication skills relevant to the care of patients with life limiting illnesses.top

DAVISON, SARA

Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada

Dr. Sara Davison is a clinical nephrologist, bioethicist and health outcomes researcher in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She also has cross appointments with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre and the Institute of Health Economics. Her program of research is funded through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and focuses on pain and symptom management, advance care planning, spirituality and other end-of-life issues for patients with chronic kidney disease and how these aspects of care impact health policy. She is active internationally giving talks on renal palliative care and acting as a consultant with respect to developing and integrating end-of-life care policy for nephrology programs.top

DELIENS, LUC

End-of-Life Care Research group, Ghent University & Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium / Department of Medical Oncology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

Luc Deliens, PhD, qualified in Medical Sociology, is Professor of Palliative Care Research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Ghent University. He leads the End-of-Life Care Research Group and Co-Chair the European Association for Palliative Care Research Network. He coordinates or is involved in different on-going EU projects, and successfully supervised 28 PhDs in palliative care. Actually he is supervising about 20 PhD students. He published over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals, au-thored, co-authored or edited 16 books and published over 50 book chapters. He received several scientific awards, and is member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.top

DETERING, KAREN

Respecting Patient Choices – Austin Health, Victoria, Australia

Karen Detering, a respiratory physician, and clinical ethicist, has worked in the “Respecting Patient Choices” advance care planning program based at Austin Health in Melbourne, since 2003. She has long standing clinical and research interests in improving care, particularly towards and at end-of-life. Her current roles include the development, delivery and evaluation of ACP educational resources for health care professionals, and ongoing research regarding ACP implementation and outcomes for a range of patient groups. In 2010 she published a paper in the BMJ entitled “The impact of advance care planning on end of life care in elderly medical patients; a randomised controlled trial.top

DIXON, JOSIE

London School of Economics, PSSRU, London, UK

Josie Dixon is a Research Fellow at the Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science. She conducts and directs research, using quantitative and qualititative methods, in ageing, health and social care with work focusing on advance care planning, equity issues in palliative care provision, and dementia diagnosis and post diagnostic care. She previously directed research projects, for Government sponsors and other funders, at the National Centre for Social Research, where she led on ageing and social care. She holds a BSc Economics and Government, LSE (First Class) and an MSc Social Research Methods, LSE (Distinction).top

DÖRR, BIANKA

University of Luzern, Switzerland

Dr. Bianka Dörr, LL.M., studied law at the Philipps University in Marburg (Germany) and the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK). She also studied Sacred Music at the University of Fulda, Germany. From 2008 to 2010, she did a Visiting Research Fellowship at the King's College in London. From 2009 to 2010, she was a Visiting Professor for Medical Law, Public Health and Civil Law at the University of Augsburg. Since 2013 Bianka Doerr has worked as a research assistant at the University of Luzern, Switzerland. There, she is a co-project manager of the SNF- Research Project “Self-determination at the end of life in Swiss’ law”.top

FASSBENDER, KONRAD

Institute of Public Economics, University of Alberta, Canada

Konrad Fassbender, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Division of Palliative Care Medicine, an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Public Health and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Economics at the University of Alberta. He is cross-appointed as the first scientist for the Integrated Centre for Care Advancement through Research (iCARE), a joint venture of the University of Alberta and Capital Health and as research associate with the Sociobehavioural Research Centre (BC Cancer Agency). Dr. Fassbender supervises graduate students and teaches health economics, health finance and econometrics. His program of research is to study the effects of health reform and technological change on health and economic outcomes of dying patients and their families. He works with clinicians, administrators and policy makers to measure cost and performance associated with the financing and delivery of health and social services.top

FÜHRER, MONIKA

Center for Pediatric Palliative Care, University Children’s Hospital Munich, Germany

Monika Führer, MD, is a pediatrician specialized in oncology, hematology, and palliative medicine. Since 2009 she holds the professorship for Pediatric Palliative Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany. She is co-founder of the Coordination Center for Pediatric Palliative Medicine at the Munich University Hospital and the Bavarian Working Group for Pediatric Palliative Care. She has published over 70 scientific articles, over 20 book chapters and one book. Her current research interests are: health services research in pediatric palliative care, palliative care in pediatric oncology, social support and meaning in life, advance care planning and end-of-life decisions in pediatrics. In 2001 she received the Marguerite Lina Siebert Award of the Foundation for Research in Childhood Cancer Mainz, in 2008 the award for outpatient palliative care of the German Society for Palliative Medicine and in 2009 the Sister Frances Dominica Award, Children’s Hospice International.top

HAMMES, BUD

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, USA

Bernard “Bud” Hammes is a Professor of Clinical Science at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and an Associate Adjunct Professor of the Institute for Health and Society at the Medical College of Wisconsin and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He was educated at the University of Notre Dame, receiving his BA in 1972 and his PhD in philosophy in 1978. Since 1984, he has served as the Director of Medical Humanities and Respecting Choices® for the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation and the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In this position he provides educational programs for house staff, medical students, nursing student and physician assistant students. He also provides in-services and workshops for the medical staff, nursing staff, social workers, and the pastoral care department. He chairs both the Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee. For the Institutional Ethics Committee he serves the role of ethics consultant. His work has been primarily focused on improving care at the end-of-life.top

HARRISON DENING, KAREN

Dementia UK, London, United Kingdom ; Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Unit, University College London, United Kingdom

Karen has a nursing background spanning over 40 years. With qualifications in mental health, learning disability and general nursing she made the conscious decision in the early 1980's to specialise in working with people with dementia and their families when old age psychiatry became a focused service in its own right. From a background of community mental health nursing she became Consultant Admiral Nurse in North London and more recently the Director of Admiral Nursing with Dementia UK. With an interest in palliative and end of life care for families affected by dementia she works collaboratively with both the National Council for Palliative Care and Marie Curie UK to develop policy and guidance for end of life care in dementia. Her research interests are varied and include palliative and end of life care in dementia, advance care planning, practice development and the articulation of expertise in nursing. She successfully completed doctoral studies at UCL in advance care planning in dementia in 2014.top

HENDERSON, CLAIRE

Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, UK

I am a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry at the Health Service and Population Research Department, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry, and Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. I led the first randomised controlled trial of joint crisis plans for my PhD project from 1999-2003, and worked on the subsequent multisite randomised controlled trial of Joint Crisis Plans (CRIMSON). I also led a Delphi consensus study on the implementation of psychiatric advance directives in the US Veterans’ Health Administration.top

HENRY, CLAIRE

National Council for Palliative Care and Dying Matters Coalition, UK

Claire is the Chief Executive of The National Council for Palliative Care & Dying Matters Prior to this role, Claire was Head of Programmes for Long Term Conditions and End of life Care at NHS Improving Quality. Previous roles have included National Director for the NHS End of Life Care Programme supporting SHA/PCTs and other organisations to improve the quality of care for all adult patients nearing the end of life. She had a number if roles within the Cancer Services Collaborative ‘Improvement Partnership’ (CSC ‘IP’) supporting cancer networks in the implementation of service redesign for cancer services. Claire’s background is in nursing. She trained at South Lincolnshire School of Nursing. After qualifying Claire worked predominately in cancer and palliative care.top

HICKMAN, SUSAN

Indiana University School of Nursing, Indiana, USA

Susan Hickman, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist and Associate Professor at the Indiana University School of Nursing. Dr. Hickman is dedicated to improving the care of older patients near the end of life, primarily through research on decision-making. A major focus of her work is on the POLST (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment), a widely used tool that documents treatment preferences in the form of medical orders. Most recently, she conducted a study on POLST decision quality. Additionally, Dr. Hickman is a Co-Investigator on the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services funded demonstration project OPTIMISTIC, which includes implementation of an advance care planning intervention using Respecting Choices Last Steps in 19 nursing facilities.top

HOUBEN, CARMEN H.M.

Department of Research & Education, CIRO, Centre of Expertise for Chronic Organ Failure, Horn

Carmen H.M. Houben MSc. (Horn, The Netherlands) is a medical psychologist. Currently she is working as researcher/PhD student at CIRO+, center of expertise for chronic organ failure. Her PhD project is entitled “A randomized controlled trial on the influence of structured advance care planning on quality of end-of-life care communication and quality of end-of-life care in patients with COPD”. This project is funded by The Netherlands Lung Foundation (Grant 3.4.12.022). In 2014 she has published a systematic review concerning advance care planning.

JOHNSON, DANIEL

Kaiser Permanente Colorado Region, Colorado, USA

Dr. Daniel Johnson is the National Physician Lead for Palliative Care at Kaiser Permanente’s Care Management Institute and Director of Supportive Care Solutions at Kaiser Permanente-Colorado. He is Clinical Faculty at the University of Colorado and a Faculty Affiliate for the University of Colorado Center for Bioethics and Humanities. Dr. Johnson is a recipient of the Hasting’s Center Cuniff-Dixon Physician Award (2013), a Soros Faculty Scholar for the Project on Death in America, a graduate of the Harvard Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice and a 2012 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Innovations Advisor.

JOX, RALF

Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

Ralf J. Jox, MD, PhD, is a medical ethicist, neurologist and palliative care specialist working as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, University of Munich, Germany. His research activities focus on advance care planning (ACP), end-of-life decisions, clinical ethics, and neuroethics. He is co-investigator of a German pilot project on ACP in paediatrics and co-authors the first German-speaking book on ACP that will appear in autumn 2015. Dr. Jox is a member of the Local Organizing Committee of the ACPEL Conference in Munich.

KORFAGE, IDA J.

Department of Public Health, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Ida J. Korfage is Assistant Professor of Quality of Life at Erasmus MC – University Medical Center Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She is an economist and epidemiologist by training. Her main research topic is the assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in Oncology, and she undertakes and supervises quantitative, qualitative and methodological studies, with a focus on screening settings and decision making processes. Her work was supported by various research grants including a fellowship from the Dutch Cancer Society and research visits at the University of Bristol, the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia. She collaborates with many colleague researchers and others, and publishes peer-reviewed scientific articles in both methodological and medical journals. Ida Korfage is involved in local, national and international studies, including the coordination of a large European cluster RCT on the effects of advance care planning in oncology.

KRONES, TANJA

Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History, University Hospital/University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

After finishing her studies in medicine, sociology, psychology and politics with her MD thesis in 2000, Tanja Krones worked as a medical doctor in internal medicine and as research fellow and project leader on ethics in reproductive biomedicine, public health and primary care at the University of Marburg. She formed part of the ethics liaison service at the University hospital since 2004 and gave lectures in sociology, medical ethics and internal medicine and public health. She was executive secretary of the research ethics commission (2006-2009), senior lecturer in medical ethics since 2004 and finished her “habilitation” (2nd PhD thesis for gaining full professorship) on a context sensitive bioethics in 2007. She is member of the German central ethics commission of physicians (ZEKO) since 2007, speaker of the specialist division of ethics and evidence based medicine of the German Network for evidence based Medicine. Since 1st of August 2009 she is head physician of clinical ethics/executive secretary of the clinical ethics committee of the University hospital of Zurich at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Zurich.

KÜHLMEYER, KATJA

Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

Katja Kühlmeyer, Psychologist, studied at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and Eberhard Karls Universität Tuebingen (Germany). For her thesis in Medical Ethics she received a Dr. in human biology from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU Munich). She is currently working as a Research Associate at the Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine at the LMU Munich. Her research focuses on clinical ethics (i.e. end-of-life decisions, moral distress, advance care planning), neuroethics (i.e. disorders of consciousness, memory modification) and methodology of qualitative research.

LARKIN, PHILIP

University College Dublin/Our Lady's Hospice Ltd School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems, Dublin, Ireland

Philip Larkin is Professor of Clinical Nursing (Palliative Care) at University College Dublin and Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services, Dublin. He was also Chair of the Irish Association for Palliative Care and was honoured to hold the Vice-Chair of the European Association for Palliative Care 2003-2007. Originally, Philip Larkin was trained as a Registered Nurse and Paediatric Nurse in the UK and worked in a variety of clinical posts, latterly in paediatric oncology and bone marrow transplantation. In 1990 he moved to palliative care. Philip Larkin has more than 20 years of clinical and academic experience in the speciality of palliative care, including regional co-ordinator of services and head of a hospice education department.

LOTZ, JULIA DESIREE

Center for Pediatric Palliative Care, University Children’s Hospital Munich, Germany

Julia Desiree Lotz, psychologist, studied psychology at the Ruprecht-Karls University, Heidelberg, Germany. She is PHD student and currently working as a research assistant at the Center for Pediatric Palliative Care, University Children’s Hospital, Munich, Germany. Her research focuses on end-of-life decisions and advance care planning in pediatrics. She is also training as a child and youth psychotherapist, and works at the Center for Integrative Psychotherapy, Munich.

MANSON, LEIGH

Advance Care Planning Cooperative, Auckland District Health Board, New Zealand

Leigh Manson, B.Proc, LLB, MBA, has been leading business innovation and improvement programs for over 15 years. She joined Auckland District Health Board within three months of moving to New Zealand in 2010 and has successfully led a wide range of change and strategic initiatives in partnership with clinicians and patients. This work has involved creating and deploying meaningful improvements to existing services or developing new services (including Advance Care Planning) within a framework of quality and sustainability. This in turn has resulted in measurable benefits for patients and whānau /families, the workforce, the organisation and the New Zealand national health service.

MARCKMANN, GEORG

Institute for Ethics, History and Theory of Medicine, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany

Georg Marckmann studied medicine and philosophy at the University of Tübingen (Germany) and received a master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health (Boston, MA). He was a scholar in the Postgraduate College “Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities” in Tübingen from 1992 to 1995. He received a doctoral degree in medicine in 1997. From 1998 to 2010 he was Assistant Professor at the Institute of Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Tübingen, since 2003 as vice director of the institute. Since 2010 he is full professor of medical ethics and director of the Institute of Ethics, History, and Theory of Medicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Since 2012 he is president of the German Medical Ethics Society (“Akademie für Ethik in der Medizin”). His main research interests include ethical issues in end-of-life care, clinical ethics consul-tation, distributive justice in health care, and public health ethics.

MASON, HELEN

Healthcare Improvement, Cambridge, USA / Bay of Plenty District Health Board, New Zealand

Helen Mason, is the 2014-15 New Zealand Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice. She is currently undertaking research into Advance Care Planning, based at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. She holds a Lecturer position at Harvard Medical School. Mason has held various positions at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board since 2002, including Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Planning and Funding. Mason has held a number of roles nationally, including DHB Sponsor of the National Primary Health Care Organisation Performance Management Programme. Mason was involved in the development of the New Zealand Children’s Commissioner’s Child and Youth Health Compass. She has worked in public and private healthcare, in the England, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Mason earned an M.B.A. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and a Nursing and Midwifery Degree from the College of Nursing and Midwifery, Addington Hospital, Durban.

MAYCROFT, JOHN

Wisconsin Medical Society, USA

John Maycroft, MPP is Co-creator and Director of Honoring Choices Wisconsin (HCW), an initiative to promote the benefits of and improve processes for advance care planning (ACP) across the state of Wisconsin, in clinical settings and in the community. HCW now includes 23 hospital, clinical and health system participants, from large integrated systems to small rural hospitals. These organizations have trained over 250 facilitators through the Respecting Choices First Steps® model, facilitated more than 5000 conversations, and are moving toward advance care planning as a standard and routine part of care. HCW provides training, workflow assistance, consultation and support to ensure that ACP conversations are routinely offered, scheduled, conducted, documented, and entered consistently into the medical record. Participants share common documentation, measures, education materials and vocabulary, and collaborate across competitive lines. In addition, HCW has developed community engagement strategies to improve and promote ACP across cultures, faiths and identities. Outreach includes ambassador programs, local facilitator pools and media, as well as video production with Wisconsin Public Television. A University of Wisconsin alumnus, John worked for several Midwestern political campaigns before spending two years teaching English, public speaking, and debate at Ocean University of China in the city of Qingdao. He earned a master of public policy degree from Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and spent one session as a legislative research assistant in the Wisconsin Assembly before coming to the Society in 2010.

MICHAEL, NATASHA

Cabrini Health, VIC, Australia

Dr Natasha Michael is Director of Palliative Medicine at Cabrini Health as well as Care Consultant and Honorary Clinical Researcher at the Department of Cancer Experiences Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She was previously Deputy Director of Palliative Medicine at Peter Mac and completed her advanced training in the United Kingdom and Ireland, a MSc at Kings College London and Fellowship at the National Cancer Centre, Singapore. Her research interest is in clinical decision making, care planning and outcome assessment in advanced illness, bioethics and use of the humanities in medical teaching and practice.

MUIR, SHONA

Advance Care Planning Cooperative, Auckland District Health Board, New Zealand

Shona Muir, MA (Hons), BSc, PG Dip, has been working in healthcare improvement programmes for nearly ten years. She joined Auckland District Health Board’s Advance Care Planning Programme in 2011 and has led the successful training development and roll-out component of the programme. Since 2012, over 2,000 healthcare staff have taken up various levels of training with evaluations consistently demonstrating statistically significant improvements. A training programme for the general public has also recently been developed. Previous work Shona has undertaken includes healthcare evaluation and senior nursing roles. She has specialised in care of the dying for over fifteen years.

MURRAY, SCOTT

Primary Palliative Care Research Group, Community Health Sciences - General Practice, University of Edinburgh, UK

Scott Murray founded and now leads the first Palliative Care Research Group (www.homepages.ed.ac.uk/smurray1/) based in an academic department of Family Medicine in Europe. In 2006 he was appointed to the inaugural St Columba’s Hospice Chair of Primary Palliative Care at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He chairs the International Primary Palliative Care Network, (www.ippcn.org) which seeks to encourage research and advocacy for the palliative care approach to be adopted internationally in primary care, and is currently advising the WHO on operationalising integrated palliative care. He is a board member of the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care, and has been active in the conceptual development of various recent national end-of-life strategies. Having worked in Kenya for seven years, he regularly visits African countries to conduct training, evaluation and research. His vision is that good palliative care should be available to everyone everywhere by generalists supported by specialists.

NAUCK, FRIEDEMANN

Prof. Dr. med. Friedemann Nauck, Director Department of Palliative Medicine and Chair in Palliative Medicine, University Medicine Göttingen, Georg August University, 2010 - 2014 President of the German Association for Palliative Medicine, Editor of the Journal “Zeitschrift für Palliativmedizin”, Member of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) and Member of the Board of Directors of the EAPC 1995 – 2003, Chair Scientific Committee 11th EAPC Congress Vienna 2009 of the EAPC, Member of the Task Force Development of „Centres of Excellence in Palliative Care”; Task Force on the Development of Palliative Care in Europe.

PLESCHBERGER, SABINE

Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg , Austria

Sabine Pleschberger has a Research Professorship in Palliative Care at the Institute of Nursing Science and Practice at the Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg (Austria). She is also a qualified nurse with degrees in Social and Health Care Sciences. Her main research interests include conceptual issues of hospice and palliative care, service evaluation, home care and users‘ perspectives – vulnerable groups.

RHEE, JOEL

The University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia; HammondCare, NSW, Australia

Dr Joel Rhee is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Care at UNSW Australia. He graduated from UNSW with First Class Honours Degree in Medicine before training as a General Practitioner. Joel’s research and clinical interest lies in the optimal delivery of end-of-life care in the primary care setting. His PhD examined the role of Advance Care Planning in Australian primary care. He is currently leading a research project examining the feasibility and acceptability of Practice Nurse-coordinated ACP. Joel is an executive committee member for the International Primary Palliative Care Network (www.ippcn.org), member of the Scientific Working Group 3 of the Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group in Australia (PC4), and sits on a number of steering committees and advisory panels for various government and non-government organisations. Joel provides clinical care for elderly patients at the HammondCare Centre for Positive Ageing and Care in Sydney.

RIETJENS, JUDITH

University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Judith Rietjens (1978) works as an assistant professor at the Department of Public Health of Erasmus MC, the Netherlands. She also holds a 10% professor (ZAP) position at the End-of-Life Care Research Group of Ghent University & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. She is health scientist by training. She completed her PhD on end-of-life decision-making in 2006. In the period Sept 2013-Dec 2013 she was a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS), as a result of the ""For Women in Science"" fellowship she was awarded with in 2012 by L’Oréal-Unesco, NIAS and LNVH. In 2010 she was a visiting researcher at the dept. of Geriatrics of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven (US) and in 2005 at the Buehler Center on Aging of the Northwestern University in Chicago (US). She is involved in several local, national and international projects. She is co-PI of a EU FP7 funded international study ACTION, about advance care planning in Europe and coordinates a study about the cost-effectiveness of advance care planning in Dutch care homes. She also chairs the EACP taskforce about advance care planning.She was honoured with a VENI (Innovational Research Incentives for academic excellence) grant and a EUR fellowship. In this context, she coordinates an international study (the UNBIASED study) that evaluates the practice of palliative sedation in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK from an empirical and ethical perspective.top

SAUL, PETER

John Hunter Hospital, Australia

Dr. Peter Saul is a senior intensive care specialist in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Director of the Newcastle Private Hospital ICU, and Medical Director of organ and tissue donation for the Hunter New England Health District. He has a longstanding interest in the ethics and sociology of medicine, starting with a Masters of Arts in Social and Political Science at Cambridge University and a brief career as an academic prior to his medical training. An early memory is trying to run a course in medical ethics for fellow undergraduates at the Royal London in 1973 – surely one of the first of its kind! In 1996, along with Ian Kerridge and John McPhee, he founded the Clinical Unit in Ethics and Health Law (CUEHL) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. From 2005, Peter became preoccupied with trying to improve end of life care, co-authoring a series of guidelines with NSW Health and researching advance care planning with a number of groups including the Federally-funded Respecting Patient Choices programme. At present he is on steering committees with federal and state governments, still optimistic that the Australian health system, currently the world’s best at preventing premature death, can also become a leader in compassionate care for those whose death can no longer be postponed.top

IN DER SCHMITTEN, JÜRGEN

Department of General Practice, University of Düsseldorf

Jürgen in der Schmitten is a family practitioner and psychotherapeut in a group practice in the city of Meerbusch (near Düsseldorf). From 1985 to 1994 he studied medicine at universities in Tübingen (Germany), Belfast and Boston. From 2005 to 2014 he was a research assistant at the Department of General Practice at the University of Düsseldorf. In this function he has co-ordinated the interdisciplinary research project RESPEKT that developed and implemented the regional ACP program beizeiten begleiten (≈ ‘[be] caring betimes’) with a grant of the German Ministry for Education and Research (2008-2011), and he is committed to further regional implementation of ACP programs in Germany. Since 2014 he is Professor of the Department of General Practice, University of Düsseldorf.top

SEYMOUR, JANE

School of Health Sciences, The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Jane Seymour is Professor of Palliative and End of Life Studies and Head of the Sue Ryder Care Centre for the Study of Supportive, Palliative and End of Life Care at the School of Health Sciences, University of Nottingham. The Centre undertakes research in: decision making and communication; policy and service evaluation; experiences of giving and receiving care; evaluation of interventions. The Centre provides a PhD programme, undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities and short courses for practitioners. Jane is a nurse and a social scientist, and has been involved in palliative care research since the early 1990s.top

SILVESTER, WILLIAM

Austin Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

William “Bill” Silvester is an Associate Professor and The Director of the Respecting Patient Choices Program at the Austin Hospital. He is also an intensive care specialist and a medical consultant for DonateLife, the Victorian Organ Donation Service and the president of the International Society of Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care. His current professional areas of interest include advance care planning, end of life care and organ donation. He undertook his training in Perth and London and has been at the Austin Hospital since 1996.top

SNOW, BARRY

Auckland District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand

Dr Barry Snow is a Neurologist and Director of the Adult Medical Directorate, Auckland District Health Board. He is also the clinical lead for the National Advance Care Planning Cooperative in New Zealand. He is recognised internationally for his expertise in the management of movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and is a leading authority in patient care, advocacy and research. Having trained in Auckland, Dr Snow left for Canada in 1988 to undertake his Neurological Foundation V J Chapman Fellowship, and once completed, remained at the Movement Disorders Programme at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver as Associate Professor. Dr Snow returned to New Zealand in 1995 to join the Department of Neurology at Auckland Hospital before advancing to the position of Clinical Director of Neurology in 1999.top

SUDORE, REBECCA

University of California, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

Rebecca Sudore, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, a clinician-researcher, and a Geriatrician and a Hospice and Palliative Care physician. She is also a Staff Physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Her research focuses on the intersection of health literacy, geriatrics, advance care planning, and informed medical decision making. Her current research program is focused on designing and testing interactive, web-based interventions to prepare patients and their surrogate decision makers to make complex medical decisions over the course of chronic and serious illness.top

THOMAS, KERI

The Gold Standards Framework (GSF) Centre, Shrewsbury, United Kingdom

Keri Thomas, MB BS, MRCGP, DRCOG, MSc Palliative Medicine, is the founder and National Clinical Lead of The National Gold Standards Framework Centre in End of life Care which focuses on enabling generalists to provide a ‘gold standard’ of care for all people nearing the end of life in all settings. She is also Hon Professor for End of Life Care at the University of Birmingham. As a practicing GP for over 25 years and working in hospices for over 20 years, she was the originator of the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) for primary care in 2000, in care homes in 2004, acute hospi-tals in 2009 and other programmes. She lectures and writes extensively, contributes to several na-tional expert groups such as NICE, DH EoLC Programme, All Party Parliamentary Groups. She is author of ‘Caring for the Dying at Home’, editor of the recent OUP book ‘Advance Care Planning in End of Life Care’ and has published extensively.top

THORN, MANDY

Marches Care Ltd, Shropshire, England

Joined family care home business, January 1994 and took over responsibility for day to day operation of the business from 1998 becoming Managing Director in 2003. Have developed the care home to be recognised as leading nursing and dementia nursing providers and recognised as a centre of excellence in end of life care the family run business now employs over 140 people. The business has almost quadrupled in size in past seven years and now includes day care for adults with dementia alongside training and consultancy services. The business enjoys excellent reviews and ratings and is recognised as an exemplar care home for dementia and end of life care. After being one of the pilot sites for the Gold Standard Framework in End of Life Care launched in 2004/05 and having continued to be accredited since that date I was later asked to join the fledging GSF Training Centre CIC as it moved out of the NHS as a Non-Executive Director. The GSF Training Centre CIC delivers training and quality assurance across the UK and overseas and works in care homes, domiciliary care, hospitals, GP services and hospices. I am currently the vice-chair of National Care Association, representing care providers across Etopngland. I was privileged to receive an MBE for services to Dementia; Queen’s Birthday Honours 2014.

VAN DER HEIDE, AGNES

Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Department of Public Health, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Agnes van der Heide, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medical Care and in Decision making at the end of life. Since she obtained her PhD degree (1994) on a multicenter RCT on rheumatoid arthritis thera-py, she has coordinated many collaborative research projects on a national and international scale. Agnes van der Heide currently sits on a number of national and international scientific committees. She is co-founder and a member of the board of the International Collaborative for End-of-life Research (ICER) and a member of the board of the International OPCARE9 Research Collaborative, and a board member of the Centre of Expertise for Palliative Care Rotterdam.top

VAN DEN BLOCK , LIEVE

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), End-of-Life Care Research Group, Brussels, Belgium

Lieve Van den Block has a Master in Clinical Psychology and PhD in Medical-Social Sciences, and is professor at the Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She coordinates the research on palliative care for older people at the VUB-UGent End-of-Life Care Research Group, focusing on public health and interventional research concerning end-of-life and palliative care, in a national and international perspective. She is coordinator of the EU funded EURO IMPACT project, a Marie Curie Initial Training Network (GA n°[264697]) and coordinator of PACE “Palliative Care for Elderly People” a collaborative research project involved 12 EU partners, funded within the EU FP7 Health programme, (GA n°[603111]).top

VINCENT, JEAN-LOUIS

Department of Intensive Care, Erasme University Hospital, Brussels

Jean-Louis Vincent, MD, PhD, is Professor of Intensive Care at University of Brussels, and an intensivist in the Department of Intensive Care at the Erasme University Hospital in Brussels. He is President of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM) and a Past-President of the Belgian Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SIZ), the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the European Shock Society (ESS), and the International Sepsis Forum (ISF). He is member of the Royal Medical Academy of Belgium. He is the Editor-in-Chief of "Critical Care", "Current Opinion in Critical Care", and "ICU Management" and member of the editorial boards of about 30 other journals. He received several awards: the Distinguished Investigator Award of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the College Medalist Award of the American College of Chest Physicians; he was the Recipient of the "Society Medal” (lifetime award) of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.