Robert Twycross

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Robert Twycross
Born (1941-01-29) January 29, 1941 (age 82)
England, United Kingdom
Education Oxford University
Occupation(s)Retired Physician, writer

Robert Twycross (born 29 January 1941) is a retired British physician and writer. He was a pioneer of the hospice movement during the 1970s, when he helped palliative care gain recognition as an accepted field of modern medicine. [1] [2]

Contents

Education and early achievements

Dr Twycross was educated at St John's School, Leatherhead, [3] and graduated from Oxford University with a BM BCh in 1965. After completing his MRCP, in 1971 he was appointed as a Clinical Research Fellow at St Christopher's Hospice by Dame Cicely Saunders.

During his tenure there, Dr Twycross completed studies on the effectiveness of morphine, diamorphine and methadone in managing cancer pain. These studies helped standardize and simplify the treatment of pain, eliminating more complicated treatments such as the Brompton cocktail. This research led to Dr. Twycross being awarded the University of Oxford higher degree of Doctor of Medicine. [4]

Later career and international influence

Dr Twycross served as the Director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care from 1988 to 2005, which signalled a period of extensive travel and teaching around the world, most notably to Poland, India, and Argentina. [4] He also served for 25 years at Sir Michael Sobell House in Oxford, from 1976 to 2001, first as the NHS Medical Director and later as Clinical Reader in Palliative Medicine, Oxford University, and Consultant Physician. In 1996 he was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists "for services to medicine", the first physician to be elected from the field of palliative medicine and hospice care. [5] Dr Twycross retired from Oxford University and the National Health Service in 2001. He was appointed as a trustee of the Foundation for Palliative Care Education (PACED) in 2019. [6]

Palliativedrugs.com

In 2000, [7] Dr Twycross, along with Dr Andrew Wilcock, founded palliativedrugs.com Ltd, to provide "essential independent information for health professionals worldwide about drugs used in palliative and hospice care." at www.palliativedrugs.com where the information from the Palliative Care Formulary is available on-line. The website has received positive reviews, [8] and had some 30,000 registered members in 169 countries in 2018, when the company was taken over by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. The 6th edition of the Palliative Care Formulary was published in October 2017. [9]

Honours

Related Research Articles

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual". In the past, palliative care was a disease specific approach, but today the WHO takes a broader patient-centered approach that suggests that the principles of palliative care should be applied as early as possible to any chronic and ultimately fatal illness. This shift was important because if a disease-oriented approach is followed, the needs and preferences of the patient are not fully met and aspects of care, such as pain, quality of life, and social support, as well as spiritual and emotional needs, fail to be addressed. Rather, a patient-centered model prioritizes relief of suffering and tailors care to increase the quality of life for terminally ill patients.

In medicine, specifically in end-of-life care, palliative sedation is the palliative practice of relieving distress in a terminally ill person in the last hours or days of a dying person's life, usually by means of a continuous intravenous or subcutaneous infusion of a sedative drug, or by means of a specialized catheter designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications via the rectal route.

Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced heart disease than for injury. In popular use, it indicates a disease that will progress until death with near absolute certainty, regardless of treatment. A patient who has such an illness may be referred to as a terminal patient, terminally ill or simply as being terminal. There is no standardized life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal, although it is generally months or less. Life expectancy for terminal patients is a rough estimate given by the physician based on previous data and does not always reflect true longevity. An illness which is lifelong but not fatal is a chronic condition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cicely Saunders</span> English nurse, social worker, physician and writer

Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the importance of palliative care in modern medicine, and opposing the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.

Joseph J. Fins, M.D., D. Hum. Litt., M.A.C.P., F.R.C.P. is an American physician and medical ethicist. He is chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, where he serves as The E. William Davis Jr., M.D. Professor of Medical Ethics, and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry. Fins is also Director of Medical Ethics and an attending physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. Fins is also a member of the adjunct faculty of Rockefeller University and has served as Associate for Medicine at The Hastings Center. He is the Solomon Center Distinguished Scholar in Medicine, Bioethics and the Law and a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to The White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy and currently serves on The New York State Task Force on Life and the Law by gubernatorial appointment.

M. Krishnan Nair was an Indian oncologist. He was the founding director of the Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, a director of the S.U.T. Institute of Oncology, and Trivandrum Cancer Center(TCC), part of SUT Royal Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and a professor at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research in Kochi. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 2001 for his contributions in the cancer care field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Byock</span> American physician and author

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Thomas's Hospital Medical School</span> London medical school

St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London was one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the UK. The school was absorbed to form part of King's College London.

Sobell House Hospice is an Oxford-based hospice serving the residents of Oxfordshire, England affected by life-limiting illness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Christopher's Hospice</span> Hospice in London Borough of Bromley, England

St. Christopher's Hospice is a hospice in south London, England, established in 1967 by Cicely Saunders, whose work is considered the basis of modern hospice philosophy.

Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.

Diane E. Meier, an American geriatrician and palliative care specialist. In 1999, Dr. Meier founded the Center to Advance Palliative Care, a national organization devoted to increasing access to quality health care in the United States for people living with serious illness. She continues to serve as CAPC's Director Emerita and Strategic Medical Advisor. Meier is also Vice-Chair for Public Policy, Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Meier was founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City from 1997 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Adrian Richards</span> Oncologist and cancer researcher

Professor Sir Michael Adrian Richards, CBE, MD, DSc (Hon), FRCP is a British oncologist. From 1999 to 2013 he was the National Cancer Director in the UK Government's Department of Health. He was appointed to be the Chief Inspector of Hospitals in the Care Quality Commission on 31 May 2013. and was said by the Health Service Journal to be the third most powerful person in the English NHS in December 2013.

Anne Merriman, MBE, MCommH, FRCPI, FRCP is a British doctor, known for her pioneering work and influential research into palliative care in developing countries in Africa. She has campaigned to make affordable oral morphine widely available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. R. Rajagopal</span> Indian palliative care physician (born 1947)

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Ahmedzai</span>

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References

  1. University of British Columbia, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Practice, "Division of Palliative Care hosts lectures by pioneering physician, Dr. Robert Twycross", 9 June 2009
  2. Minton, Michael, Introduction to 25 Years in Palliative Medicine at Sir Michael Sobell House: A Festschrift for Robert Twycross, p. 1.
  3. WHO'S WHO and WHO WAS WHO 2020, Online, Published by A & C Black Limited, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc
  4. 1 2 25 Years in Palliative Medicine at Sir Michael Sobell House: A Festschrift for Robert Twycross, Radcliffe Medical Press, 2003. ISBN   1-85775-840-4
  5. Hillier, Richard "Palliative Care: Robert's Contribution" in 25 Years in Palliative Medicine at Sir Michael Sobell House, p. 4
  6. "Paced". www.paced.org.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  7. "PALLIATIVEDRUGS.COM LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  8. Gavrin, J. Expert Knowledge in Palliative Care on the World Wide Web: Palliativedrugs.org. Journal of Pain & Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy. Vol. 23(4), 2009. "", accessed 10 August 2010.
  9. Palliativedrugs.com. Main Page. "", accessed 16 May 2019.
  10. American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Awards