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Professor Irene Higginson OBE
Image of Irene Higginson

Professor Irene Higginson OBE

  • Academics
  • Researchers
  • Supervisors
  • Clinical

Director of Better Health & Care Hub

Founding Professor, Cicely Saunders Institute for Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation . Professor of Palliative Care & Policy.

Research subject areas

  • Palliative care

Contact details

Biography

Professor Irene Higginson, OBE, is the Director of the Better Health & Care Hub. She is Professor of Palliative Care & Policy, Founding Professor of the Cicely Saunders Institute, Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine, NIHR Emeritus Senior Investigator and Fellow of the Academy of Sciences. 

She is dual-trained and registered in palliative medicine and public health medicine. Professor Higginson is active in research and education and in the top 1% of highly cited academics. She teaches MSc, medical and PhD students. Through her current research programmes, she investigates treatments, symptom management, access and services in palliative care. She has published over 700 articles in peer-reviewed journals, plus several books. 

Professor Higginson is Scientific Director for the charity Cicely Saunders International and her research has pioneered better ways to measure outcomes and quality of life, and evaluate palliative care, especially new services and interventions.

Research interests

  • Quality of life and outcome measurements
  • Evaluation of palliative care especially of new services and interventions
  • Epidemiology
  • Effectiveness
  • Psychosocial care
  • Symptom assessment
  • Breathlessness
  • Cachexia/anorexia
  • Multi-morbidity
  • COVID-19

Enquiring about potential PhD supervision

If you’re thinking of applying for one of our PhD programmes and are looking for potential supervisors, please email nmpc_pgr_enquiries@kcl.ac.uk listing the names of the supervisors you’ve identified as having expertise in your chosen area, along with your CV and a short research proposal. 

Our Postgraduate Research Team will contact supervisors on your behalf and get back to you. If you have any queries in the meantime, please use the email address above, rather than contacting potential PhD supervisors directly, because they are unable to respond to initial enquiries.

Research profile

Description

  • MSc in Palliative Care: Applying Epidemiology in Palliative Care (7MMPAC08)
  • Research Methods & Statistics in Palliative Care (7MMPAC01)
  • PhD Supervision - open to taking PhD students in the areas of interest above;  active programme of supervising a small number of students as first supervisor.