Rate My Professor Katherine Sleeman

Professor Katherine Sleeman BSc, MBBS, MRCP, PhD holds the Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation within the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care at King’s College London. She serves as joint Academic Impact Lead for the Faculty, Chair of the Palliative Care Clinical Academic Group Reach and Impact Group, and leads the Integrated Academic Trainee programme for palliative medicine. As an Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine at King’s College Hospital NHS Trust, she also directs the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End of Life Care. Her career trajectory includes NIHR Clinical Lecturer (2010-2015), Cicely Saunders International Scholar (2015-2016), and NIHR Clinician Scientist Fellowship (2016-2021), prior to her professorial appointment in 2021.

Sleeman graduated from University College London Medical School in 1999, with a BSc in Developmental Biology (top first-class honours, 1996) and distinctions in Clinical Pharmacology and Pathology. She trained in general medicine and oncology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals and the Royal Marsden Hospital, then completed her PhD in 2007 at the Institute of Cancer Research, titled 'Stem Cell Activity and Estrogen Receptor Expression in the Mouse Mammary Gland.' Her research focuses on palliative and end-of-life care, particularly for people with dementia, using routinely collected data from sources like CRIS, CPRD, and WSIC to investigate care patterns, transitions, inequalities, and policy intersections. Key projects encompass the Better End of Life Project, CovPall multinational surveys on COVID-19 impacts, studies on emergency department attendance and end-of-life decisions in dementia, and the Impact Centre for Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Major publications include 'The escalating global burden of serious health-related suffering: projections to 2060 by world regions, age groups, and health conditions' (The Lancet Global Health, 2019), 'Change in Activity of Palliative Care Services during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Multinational Survey (CovPall)' (Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2022), and 'Electronic palliative care coordination systems (EPaCCS): a systematic review' (BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2020). Awards include the inaugural European Association for Palliative Care Award for Women in Palliative Care (2019) and a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travel fellowship (2020). Her contributions extend to policy influence via parliamentary evidence and public lectures.