|
|
| Professor Sam, Hjelmeland Ahmedzai |
 Sam trained in physiology and medicine at the University of St Andrews and the University of Manchester. A student attachment
with Professor Derek Crowther at the Christie Hospital in Manchester inspired his interest in cancer, and encouraged him to
train initially in oncology under Sir Kenneth Calman at Glasgow. He then underwent specialist training in pulmonary (chest)
medicine. He was invited to speak at St. Christopher's Hospice, London, after his first publication on the difficulties junior
hospital doctors encounter in dealing with the dying appeared in the British Medical Journal. As a result he became strongly
interested in palliative care and symptom control. In 1985, he was appointed Medical Director of Leicestershire Hospice and
helped to establish it as a major centre for research in the new field of palliative medicine. While still at Leicester, he
became an Associate Director of the newly established Trent Palliative Care Centre (TPCC) in Sheffield. In 1994, he was appointed
as the first holder of the Chair in Palliative Medicine at the University of Sheffield, and also became Director of TPCC.
Under his leadership, the university department and TPCC have combined a deeply committed medical approach to research in
palliative care with multidisciplinary work in social and cultural issues. The main body of the interview deals with the impact
of the WHO pain ladder; with Sam Ahmedzai's critique of its limitations for modern multi-model cancer care; with the development
of his newly proposed model, the symptom control pyramid (with colleagues Andreas Lübbe and Bart van den Eynden); with a number
of observations and comments on research in palliative care; and with the current state of cancer management.
|
| Interview conducted by Marcia Meldrum, 01 December 1999 |
| Interview Duration: 45 minutes |
|
|
