Scott Murray trained as a family physician in Scotland before working in Africa for seven years as Medical Director of Chogoria Hospital in rural Kenya. Returning to Edinburgh he used the technique of participatory appraisal to address health and social inequalities in a poor urban area.
Noting how death and dying were generally neglected by “modern medicine”, he started to explore how palliative care could better address and benefit people who were dying due to various diseases and to do so before the last days or weeks of life. Additionally, he explored how palliative care could better meet the needs of people experiencing spiritual distress as well as how to develop programs in poorer countries. He now leads the Primary Palliative Care Research Group, at Edinburgh University, UK. This multi-disciplinary group uses innovate qualitative methods in research, teaching and overseas consultancy.
Scott is a research advisor to the British Medical Journal, where he is leading a campaign to highlight the potential of palliative care in all progressive illnesses. He is co-chairman of the International Primary Palliative Care Research Group and a special interest group for palliative care in academic general practice in the UK. He has undertaken many consultancies in primary and palliative care and is keen for IAHPC to help palliative care to be increasingly practiced by generalist doctors and nurses in all countries.
