Clinical training fellowships at the Cicely Saunders Institute
23rd May 2016
Dr Simon Etkind and Dr Natasha Lovell have been awarded clinical training fellowships at the Cicely Saunders Institute.
Simon and Natasha completed their NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowships at the Institute and are now moving to the next stage of their training. Simon will be working on the International Access, Rights, and Empowerment II (IARE II) project. This project, funded by Cicely Saunders International, will look at how older people with non-cancer diagnoses access palliative care.
Phase One of the International Access, Rights and Empowerment (IARE I) study provided evidence from London, Dublin, New York and San Francisco, of the preferences and experiences of older adult patients who access palliative care. IARE II will examine the preferences and care experiences of patients and families with chronic disease, who do not have access to specialist palliative care. The study will focus on older people, so that results are directly relevant to the population of the future. Robust understanding of the inhibiting factors and the experiences of patients will provide vital evidence, drawn from a patient perspective. This will enable us to find ways to bring palliative and chronic care programmes together, to better support patients and families.
Natasha will be working on the BETTER-B Trial looking at drug treatments in refractory breathlessness. This project is funded by Marie Curie and Cicely Saunders International.
BETTER-B is a large scale double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised trial of mirtazapine for refractory breathlessness. The feasibility trial will run at 3 sites in the UK (Hull, Nottingham and King’s College Hospital), with oversight from the Leeds Clinical Trials Unit. Participants with cancer, lung disease (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease/ Interstitial Lung Disease) or chronic heart failure will be recruited over a 12 month period and randomised to receive either Mirtazapine (traditionally used as an antidepressant) or a placebo.