Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care was launched in 2007. It is one of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The fields of supportive and palliative care are divided into 12 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Editors-in-Chief and the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Sam H. AhmedzaiSam H. AhmedzaiSam H. Ahmedzai is Emeritus Professor at the University of Sheffield, UK with 30 years’ experience as consultant physician in palliative medicine, covering both acute hospital and hospice. His interests cover: supportive care at all stages of cancer and chronic illness; cancer-related pain and opioid drugs; symptom management in advanced diseases and at the end of life; quality of life and holistic needs assessment; and patient and public involvement in cancer research. Sam is National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) National Specialty Lead for cancer research with a specific brief for supportive care and hospice research. He chairs the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Clinical Studies Group on Supportive and Palliative Care. He also works with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on producing UK guidelines, quality standards and technology appraisals relevant to supportive and palliative care. In 2016, Sam was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the British Thoracic Oncology Group. He is an elected member of the Council of the British Pain Society and has been awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine in the Royal College of Anaesthetists, London, UK. He is Visiting Spinoza Professor at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Anthony H. DickensonAnthony H. DickensonAnthony H. Dickenson, BSc, PhD, FmedSci, FBPharmcolS is Professor of Neuropharmacology in the Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology at University College, London, UK. He gained his PhD at the National Institute for Medical Research, London, UK and has held posts in Paris, California and Sweden. His research interests are pharmacology of the brain, including the mechanisms of pain and how pain can be controlled in both normal and pathophysiological conditions, and how to translate basic science to the patient. Professor Dickenson is an Honorary Member of the British Pain Society, was a Member of the Council of the International Association for the Study of Pain for six years, and is Section Editor for the journal Pain. He has authored more than 340 refereed publications and has an h index of 90, all due to his motivated and brilliant research team. He is a founding and continuing member of the Wellcome Trust funded London Pain Consortium. Professor Dickenson has given plenary lectures at the World Congress on Pain, the American Pain Society, the European Pain Congress, the Canadian Pain Society, the Belgium Pain Society, the Association of South-East Asian Pain Societies (ASEAPS), the Scandinavian Pain Society, the British Pain Society, the Thailand Pain Society, the Irish Pain Society, the Singapore Pain Society, the Australian Pain Society, the New Zealand Pain Society and many other international and national meetings. He has also spoken at the Royal Institution, to GPs and to schools on pain. Edward ChowEdward ChowDr Edward Chow is a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, Canada and a Senior Scientist at Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada. He is the Chair of the Bone Metastases Site Group at the Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, in Toronto, Canada, where he is a staff Radiation Oncologist. SECTION EDITORS James M. BeattieJames M. BeattieDr James M. Beattie is a Consultant Cardiologist based in Birmingham, UK. A graduate of the University of Glasgow, UK, he undertook initial cardiology training in the University Department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, UK. He later pursued periods of research at the University of California, Davis, USA, and the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School, USA. In 1985, he returned to the UK to take up a post as Lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Birmingham, UK. Between 1990 and May 2017, he was Consultant Cardiologist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, UK, part of the Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, a university teaching hospital. In June 2017, he was appointed Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King's College London, UK. He holds fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of Glasgow, Edinburgh and London, and is a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). He has had a long interest in palliative care for heart failure, and for ten years was a National Clinical Lead with the NHS Heart Improvement Programme through which he contributed to the development of this aspect of heart failure care across England. He co-authored the ESC position statement on heart failure palliative care and is helping to progress this as a member of the ESC Heart Failure Association Palliative Care Task Force. Elie Isenberg-GrzedaElie Isenberg-GrzedaDr Isenberg-Grzeda is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, Canada and an attending/staff psychiatrist specializing in psycho-oncology at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada. He received his undergraduate degree in honours physiology from McGill University, Canada, in 2005 and graduated from McGill medical school in 2009. In 2013, he completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, USA, where he served as chief resident. He went on to pursue a fellowship in consultation-liaison psychiatry and psycho-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA, from 2013 to 2015, where he also served as chief fellow. He joined the University of Toronto department of psychiatry in 2015 as a clinician-teacher. He is involved in teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and has been the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including the Sunnybrook Department of Psychiatry Undergraduate Teaching Award as well as the University of Toronto MD Program Teaching Award of Excellence. He is a member of the Susan Leslie Multidisciplinary Clinic for Neuroendocrine Tumors, Canada. His clinical and research interests within psycho-oncology include non-alcoholic Wernicke encephalopathy (thiamine-related encephalopathy) in cancer patients; spiritual and existential distress among cancer patients; and medical assistance in dying. Janet EllisJanet EllisDr Janet Ellis completed her medical degree at Cambridge University, UK and her psychiatry residency in the UK and University of Toronto, Canada. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of Toronto and works as a Medical Psychiatrist in psychosocial oncology and acute physical trauma. She was a Cancer Care Ontario Regional Clinical Lead for Psychosocial Oncology for five years and is now the Director of Psychosocial Care in Trauma at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Ontario, Canada. She has research interests in both psychosocial oncology and trauma and is doing a psychoanalytic training.