A new international team that will focus on end of life studies has started work in Dumfries this month.

Professor David Clark, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Dumfries, will lead the team which will consist of Dr Shahaduz Zaman, originally from Bangladesh, Reverend Hamilton Inbadas from southern India, and Catriona Forrest.

All three are new to Dumfries as well as to their roles. Another full-time, permanent position has been created for a social science lecturer with a particular interest and expertise in end of life studies.

It is expected that over the first year the project will bring up to 10 people to the region.

Global Interventions at the End of Life

The team is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award in Medical Humanities which was awarded to the Principal Investigator, Professor Clark, last year.

Professor Clark said: “We are thrilled to have recruited a group with such expertise in their own fields. Dr Zaman has a strong background in community health, medicine and global health initiatives.

“Reverend Inbadas comes with several years of clinical, teaching and research experience in palliative care in India. He is an ordained church minister in South India and has been involved in providing spiritual care and psychological support to palliative care patients and their families.

“Finally, Catriona Forrest is our new Public Engagement Officer. One of the core features of the work will be to ensure that the wider public has access to and is engaged with the work of the project. Catriona has worked for the BBC and has an excellent understanding of all things digital. Latterly, she has worked in various capacities, including developing digital strategies at the University of Glasgow.”

Professor Clark’s global interventions team will also have the services of a full-time doctoral researcher from the University of Navarra, based in Dumfries during 2015-16.

The project also has a distinguished International Advisory Group that will meet the team four times in the course of the study; the first meeting is scheduled to take place at Crichton in late May.

Professor Clark was recently appointed Visiting Professor at the University of Navarra in Spain where he has a long-standing collaboration with Professor Carlos Centeno, working on the development of palliative care in the 53 countries that make up the WHO European region.

He was also recently invited to join the newly constituted Global Commission on Pain and Palliative Care which is sponsored by Harvard University and The Lancet.

Find out more on the End of Life Studies website .

First published: 6 March 2015

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