Our Research team

As a palliative care doctor and researcher, I am interested in understanding how to provide the best possible care to the people who use our services. This means making sure the treatments we give are effective, understanding different illnesses, and ensuring people get the right care at the right time and in the right place. I am also passionate about making sure that our service users have chance to participate in research where they want to - this is something a lot of people find important.

My own research interests relate to how we can best use data to understand patient care; data research lets us improve our care whilst minimising the burden to the people we care for. I have also developed and supported research into Project ECHO, which is an educational resource provided by St Luke's. Most recently, I have worked on a project which generated educational resources for homecare workers, who are often critical for providing good care in peoples' homes.

As Head of Research at St Luke's, I work with the research team to seek out opportunities for research that will help our patients, develop my own research projects, teach our staff about research, and help people who are interested in research to develop their ideas. 

Research themes:

• Use of data in research
• Social care and palliative care
• Project ECHO
  

Publications:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9140-4972

I feel very fortunate to hold a role at St Luke’s that offers both breadth and variety. My remit spans research governance and delivery, as well as education and innovation, which means no two days are ever the same. Since joining in December 2023, I have focused on strengthening our research governance processes to align more closely with Health Research Authority (HRA) standards—particularly important given that the independent hospice sector operates outside of these formal regulations. A key priority has also been building the capacity and capability of our workforce, ensuring staff have the knowledge, skills, and dedicated time to engage with and contribute to our growing research agenda.

Research themes:

• Research Governance
• Capacity & Capability of our workforce

Publications:

Clare Pye (0000-0003-4929-7215) - ORCID

Originally from Dundee, Sam completed his initial medical training in Aberdeen in 1998. He moved to Sheffield in 1999, and began working in palliative medicine in 2002.

Sam has been a Consultant at St Luke’s since 2008 and became St Luke’s Medical Director in 2013 and Responsible Officer in 2014.  His role was further expanded in 2018, to reflect his role leading the development of new and innovative clinical services at St Luke’s. Sam is the Executive Lead at St Luke’s for Specialist Palliative Care Research and the Project EHCO Superhub.

Sam is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a Clinical Leader for end of life care in the NHS North East and Yorkshire Strategic Clinical Network supporting the Specialist Palliative Medicine Workforce agenda. Sam worked as Training Programme Director for Palliative Medicine for Yorkshire and Humber Local Education Training Board from 2018 to 2023.

Harriet is a Project ECHO Support Assistant and Research Administrator at the Wilkes Institute, where she plays a key role in bridging education and research initiatives. Her responsibilities span stakeholder management, planning and coordinating training courses, and providing support for course leaders. Within Project ECHO, Harriet ensures smooth operations and effective engagement, while in her research administration role, she provides administrative support to research governance, and operational tasks across the institute.

Harriet is passionate about expanding the Wilkes Institute’s reach in both research and education. She actively supports education programmes that aim to improve patient outcomes and benefit the wider community in Sheffield and beyond. Her work reflects a commitment to fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and ensuring excellence in research and training.

Clare Gardiner is a professor of palliative care at the School of Allied Health Professionals, Nursing & Midwifery. She leads the Sheffield Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group and is Co-Director of the Mesothelioma UK Research Centre. Clare has over 15 years of experience in palliative care research and has published over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

In 2015, she was awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Fellowship to explore economic aspects of palliative care; in 2020 she was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowship to study policies supporting working end-of-life carers. Clare is Chair of the European Association for Palliative Care Reference Group for Family Caregivers.

I am passionate about equity at end of life. My participatory mixed methods research uses creativity to explore the impact of social prescribing on wellbeing and social connectivity. In particular, my research focuses on at how these services can meet differing needs to support underserved communities in Sheffield.

I previously project managed for an international health charity and recently completed a PhD applying mixed methods to explore cancer experience in Ghana, which led to 6 publications and a suite of creative resources.

Research Themes:

• Social prescribing, wellbeing and social connectivity at end of life
• Creative methods in palliative care
• Equity and inclusion in end of life care

Publications: