Amara Nwosu

MBCHB FRCP PhD


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My Churchill Fellowship begins!

Hello, my name is Dr Amara Nwosu, I am a Senior Clinical Lecturer (Lancaster Medical School) and Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine (Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool). In 2020, I was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to visit the U.S.A and the Netherlands to research how technology, data and design can support healthcare for people who with serious illness. My Churchill Fellowship is supported my Marie Curie.

The Churchill Fellowship

The Churchill Fellowship is an overseas travelling fellowship to support UK citizens to travel the world in search of innovative solutions for today’s most pressing problems. The Churchill Fellowship was founded by public donation in 1965 as the living legacy of Sir Winston Churchill for the UK.

The aim of my Fellowship

I aim to research how technology, data and design can support healthcare for people who with serious illness. This is because the UK population is ageing and palliative care need will increase by 42% by 2040; demand for care wil be challenging for NHS to meet without innovation. Palliative care need in the UK has been exacerbated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. When used well, digital health improves access to healthcare services; however, many barriers prevent meaningful use of these technologies in the UK. Through this Fellowship, I will travel to the Netherlands (Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam; Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Delft and IKNL, locatie Utrecht) and the USA (Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University, Boston) to meet professionals from a variety of disciplines who are using applications of design, technology and data in palliative care that can benefit the UK.

My travels (eventually) begin!

The My trip has been delayed due to the COVID19 pandemic, but I have finially commenced my trip to the Netherlands in May 2023! Firstly, I visited the Nemo Science Museum in Amsterdam which housed a fantastic exhibition about death and dying. The section titled ‘Over de dood’ (About Death) takes people through a journey about people’s views and experiences of death and dying from different cultural perspectives. The exhibition uses a mix of text, images and lighting to provide a thoughtful and emotional experience about death and dying, from a societal and human persepctive rather than a medical one. I really loved the design of the exhibition, with its inclusion within a family science musuem but also located within the ‘Hoe word ik ouder’ (How will I age?) section of the musuem, which presented positive messages about aging.

Next stop is to visit Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), where I will deliver a seminar about my research and will meet designers and engineers to learn about their excellent work.

I will provide updates about my progress in further blogs and I will record a podcast to summarise the findings of my trip.

My Research interest

  • The evaluation of technology to support care for patients with advanced disease.

Examples of my interests for the fellowship

  • Telehealth
  • Architecture and design in healthcare / palliative care
  • Technology to support care in serious illness
  • Design in healthcare and palliative care
  • Digital legacy (e.g., how digital data is managed after death)
  • Virtual reality
  • Social robotics and healthcare / palliative care
  • Use of mobile devices, apps, wearable devices to support healthcare /palliative care

Selected publications

Nwosu AC, McGlinchey T, Sanders J, Stanley S, Palfrey J, Lubbers P, Chapman L, Finucane A, Mason S
Identification of Digital Health Priorities for Palliative Care Research: Modified Delphi Study
JMIR Aging 2022;5(1):e32075

Nwosu AC, Mills M, Roughneen S, Stanley S, Chapman L, Mason SR. Virtual reality in specialist palliative care: a feasibility study to enable clinical practice adoption. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care Published Online First: 17 February 2021. doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002327

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Introduction to the 4D Picture project podcast

Welcome to the first podcast of the 4D Picture Project. This is the first episode of this podcast series, which will provide information, about the 4D Picture project. The 4D Picture project is an international research study which aims to help cancer patients, their families and healthcare providers to better understand the care options that are available for them.

This episode features: Professor Judith Rietjens (Professor of Design for Public Health at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering – Delft University of Technology (TU Delft); Associate Professor Department of Public Health – Erasmus Medical Center). Professor Anne Stiggelbout (Professor Medical Decision Making, the role of patient preferences at Leiden University). Dr Ida Korfage (Associate professor at Erasmus Medical Center).

The 4D PICTURE project aims to help cancer patients, their families, and healthcare providers better understand their options. It supports their treatment and care choices, at each stage of disease, by drawing on large amounts of evidence from different types of European data. The project involves experts from many different specialist areas who are based in nine European countries. The overall aim is to improve the cancer patient journey and ensure personal preferences are respected.

The podcast is available on Spotify and Anchor can be accessed by the following link

Information about the 4D Picture Project is available here:

Information about the Metromapping process is available here:


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Ward-based ‘Research Hub’ preparing for launch in Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool

We are delighted to be close to launching a ward-based ‘Research Hub’ in Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool, which will enable hospice-based researchers to have closer connection with patients, caregivers and staff. We that the Research-Hub will help to raise awareness of the importance of palliative care research, and will support closer working practices between research and clinical staff.

The Research Hub pilot will run for a few months until early 2023, following which we will review the project to determine how this model can potentially support research practice and innovation in our hospice and other palliative care settings. Please stay tuned, over the next few months, for further information about the ‘Research-Hub’ of Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool.


‘Designer-in-Residence’ Programme launched at Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool

Designing the ‘Hospice of The Future

Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool are delighted to welcome two design researchers from the University of Liverpool to conduct a project to design the future of hospice care.

Andrew Tibbles (right) is a Ph.D. researcher in Design for End of life and Dr Farnaz Nickpour (left) is an Associate Professor in Design & Innovation. 

Andrew and Farnaz will be ‘Designers in Residence’ in Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool for a year, where they will study all areas of the hospice. The aim of the Designer-in-Residence programme is to co-define and co-imagine current and future hospice care as an ecosystem of people, objects, environments, technologies, practices and narratives of care. The programme has three distinct objectives and deliverables respectively:

a) co-creating a systems map of the current hospice care;

b) co-defining key values, requirements and challenges in the current system; and

c) co-imagining new value propositions in future hospice care systems.

You can find out more about the work of Dr Farnaz Nickpour and Andrew Tibbles, by visiting the website of their Design Research Lab: www.inclusionaries.com


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Death, dying and the metaverse

On 08/09/2022 I delivered a talk called ‘Death, dying and the metaverse’, as part of the ‘International Collaborative for Best Care for the Dying Person’ webinar series. In this talk I reflect on my thoughts about how Web 3.0 technologies will affect how society will experience death and dying. I also discuss concepts such as digital legacy and digital immortality.

My talk starts at the 26 minute mark and is available from this link:

Death, dying and the metaverse talk – Dr Amara Nwosu

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com


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Identification of Digital Health Priorities for Palliative Care Research: Modified Delphi Study

Technology in Palliative Care (TIP) study published in JMIR Aging

I am delighted to annouce that the Technology in Palliative Care (TIP) study is complete has been published in the ‘Journal of Internet Medical Research (JMIR) Aging’ .

The aim of this modfied Delphi study was to identify research priority areas for digital health in palliative care.

The priorities identified in this study represent a wide range of important emerging areas in the fields of digital health, personalized medicine, and data science. Human-centered design and robust governance systems should be considered in future research. It is important that the risks of using these technologies in palliative care are properly addressed to ensure that these tools are used meaningfully, wisely, and safely and do not cause unintentional harm.

We hope the findings of this work will help researchers, healthcare professionals and policymakers explore how innovations in emerging technologies can improve palliative care.

The full paper can be accessed below:

Nwosu AC, McGlinchey T, Sanders J, Stanley S, Palfrey J, Lubbers P, Chapman L, Finucane A, Mason S. Identification of Digital Health Priorities for Palliative Care Research: Modified Delphi Study. JMIR Aging 2022;5(1):e32075. doi: 10.2196/32075.


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Development of ‘use-cases’ for a digital palliative care bereavement service [new study for 2022]

We are delighted that our research funding application to develop ‘use cases’ for digital palliative care bereavement service was successful. The project will be funded by Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group and is part of the Research Capability Funding stream.

We will aim to conduct the study in 2022. The lay summary is below.

Please contact me on Twitter @amaranwosu for further information:

Lay Summary

Grief, bereavement and the need for bereavement services

Grief is a natural process, in which many people will cope with help from their friends and family. However, many people will need professional help.1-3 People who are bereaved are more likely to have problems with their mental health and wellbeing. 4-6 These problems can affect many people in society.7-9 Therefore, good bereavement care is important to ensure that people get the support they need when they are grieving.3

Challenges facing bereavement services

There are many challenges to delivering bereavement care, these include:

  • There is not enough resources to meet current demand.10 
  • Some people may not easily receive support because they live in an area where there are few services.11 
  • Some people struggle to find time to receive support during working hours due to their other commitments.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has increased demand and has made it difficult for people to access services.3 2 
  • Palliative care need is increasing and is expected to increase by 42% in 2040, this will also increase need for bereavement support.12

Can digital bereavement services help more people receive support?

It is possible technology can be used to help more people to access bereavement support.13 However, it is important we carefully design these systems so they work properly.

In this project we will create the ‘blueprint’ needed to design a new digital bereavement serviceIn this study we will interview staff and caregivers about bereavement support, to understand what a digital bereavement service should look like. We will use this information to design the ‘blueprint’ which is needed to design a new digital bereavement support service. In computer science this ‘blueprint’ is called a ‘use-case’.14 15 We will partner with computer developers to design ‘use-cases’ which we can then use to build a digital bereavement service. After this study we will do more research to test whether the new digital bereavement service is helping more people to get the support they need.

References

1. Aoun SM, Breen LJ, Howting DA, et al. Who needs bereavement support? A population based survey of bereavement risk and support need. PloS one 2015;10(3):e0121101.

2. Pattison NA, White C, Lone NI. Bereavement in critical care: A narrative review and practice exploration of current provision of support services and future challenges. Journal of the Intensive Care Society 2020:1751143720928898.

3. Harrop E, Selman L, Farnell D, et al. 6 End of life and bereavement experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: Interim results from a national survey of bereaved people. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2021;11:A3-A3.

4. Guldin M-B, Vedsted P, Zachariae R, et al. Complicated grief and need for professional support in family caregivers of cancer patients in palliative care: a longitudinal cohort study. Supportive care in cancer 2012;20(8):1679-85.

5. Wittouck C, Van Autreve S, De Jaegere E, et al. The prevention and treatment of complicated grief: A meta-analysis. Clinical psychology review 2011;31(1):69-78.

6. Stroebe M, Schut H, Stroebe W. Health outcomes of bereavement. The Lancet 2007;370(9603):1960-73.

7. Birrell J, Corden A, Macduff C, et al. Socio-economic costs of bereavement in Scotland: main study report. 2013

8. van den Berg GJ, Lundborg P, Vikström J. The economics of grief. The Economic Journal 2017;127(604):1794-832.

9. Genevro J, Miller T. The emotional and economic costs of bereavement in health care settings. Psychologica Belgica 2010;50(1-2)

10. Harrop EJ, Goss S, Farnell DJ, et al. Support needs and barriers to accessing support: Baseline results of a mixed-methods national survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic. medRxiv 2021

11. Wakefield D, Fleming E, Howorth K, et al. Inequalities in awareness and availability of bereavement services in north-east England. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2020

12. Etkind SN, Bone AE, Gomes B, et al. How many people will need palliative care in 2040? Past trends, future projections and implications for services. BMC Medicine 2017;15(1):102. doi: 10.1186/s12916-017-0860-2

13. Morris SE, Ryan AK. Bereavement via Zoom during COVID-19. Journal of psychosocial oncology 2021:1-4.

14. Cockburn A. Writing Effective Use Cases. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TUZsAQAAQBAJ: Addison-Wesley 2001.15. Clausen M, Apel R, Dorchain M, et al. Use Case methodology: A progress report. Energy Informatics 2018;1(1):273-83.

15. Clausen M, Apel R, Dorchain M, et al. Use Case methodology: A progress report. Energy Informatics 2018;1(1):273-83.


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Digital health priorities for palliative care research

We have deposited our paper “Technology in Palliative Care (TIP): the identification of digital priorities for palliative care research using a modified Delphi method” on the medRxiv preprint server (ahead for formal peer reviewed publication)

The aim of this study was to identify research priority areas for digital health in palliative care.

This is first study to identify digital health research priorities for palliative care and provides guidance for researchers, funders and policy makers to consider areas for future research and development. 

We identified 16 research priority areas for technology in palliative care, representing 8 themes of big data, mobile devices, telehealth, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, the smart home, biotechnology and digital legacy.  Our findings will support researchers, clinicians and policy makers to improve the evidence base in these areas, through further research and development. This work is timely and important, as global palliative care need is increasing but there is a lack of evidence of how digital health can be meaningfully used to support care needs of people with advanced illness.  Therefore, it is important that the risks of using these technologies in palliative care are properly addressed to ensure that these tools are used meaningfully, wisely and safely and do not cause unintentional harm

The pre-print is freely available from the following link. Please note, that this has not been peer reviewed so should not yet be used to guide clinical practice.

Nwosu AC, McGlinchey T, Sanders J, Stanley S, Palfrey J, Lubbers P, Chapman L, Finucane A, Mason S. Technology in Palliative Care (TIP): the identification of digital priorities for palliative care research using a modified Delphi method. Medrxiv 2021. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.24.21259307

health technology design, vector illustration eps10 graphic


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How can technology be used to support communication in palliative care beyond the COVID19 pandemic?

Can we use technology better to support communication in palliative care?

  • We are looking for palliative care healthcare professionals to share their experience of using technology to communicate during the COVID19 pandemic.
  • The study is funded by Marie Curie is led by Sarah Stanley (research nurse at Marie Curie Liverpool Hospice). The study has ethical approval and is sponsored by Lancaster University.
  • We are seeking the opinions of Palliative Care healthcare professionals who have worked in the UK during the COVID19 pandemic. 
  • This a short electronic survey (takes roughly 10 -15 minutes to complete) can be completed from a smartphone, laptop or desktop computer.
  • We will identify how technology have been used in palliative care, been used to support communication during the COVID19 pandemic. 
  • We will use the outcomes of this work to inform policy, to identify how technologies can be used to improve palliative access beyond the COVID19 pandemic.

  All the participant information, consent form and survey can be assessed from the link below.

Click here to access the survey

health technology design, vector illustration eps10 graphic


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Investigation and management of iron deficiency anaemia in a specialist palliative care setting and the role of intravenous iron: a descriptive analysis of hospice data

Anaemia is common in hospice populations and associated with significant symptom burden. Guidelines recommend investigating for and treating iron deficiency (ID), but there is little evidence of this practice in palliative care populations. Our paper (published in AMRC Open Research) describes the results of investigations for and subsequent management of ID in Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool.

Our data demonstrates that iron deficiency is common and can be safely treated with intravenous iron replacement, within current guidelines, in a hospice setting. Further research should define the optimum use of this approach in palliative care patients.

More information can be found here:

Steele T, Bonwick H, Nwosu AC and Chapman L. Investigation and management of iron deficiency anaemia in a specialist palliative care setting and the role of intravenous iron: a descriptive analysis of hospice data [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]. AMRC Open Res 2021, 3:6 (https://doi.org/10.12688/amrcopenres.12963.1)

Medical photo created by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.com