The University of Sheffield
Department of Oncology

Mr Nisar Ahmed BSc (Hons) M.Med.Sci

Nisar Ahmed

Research Associate
(Project Manager)

University of Sheffield
Academic Unit of Supportive Care
Sykes Centre
Little Common Lane
Sheffield. S11 9NE

Telephone: +44 (0) 114 2620174 (Ext 33)
Fax: +44 (0) 114 2362916

Email: n.ahmed@sheffield.ac.uk

Name of Secretary: Deborah Reid
Secretary Tel: +44 (0)114 271 3082

Career History

Nisar Ahmed is a Research Associate in the Academic Unit of Supportive Care, Medical School, The University of Sheffield, based at St Lukes Hospice in Sheffield.

Nisar graduated in 1995 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Pharmacology from the University of Leeds, and an M.Med.Sci. in Medical Science from the University of Sheffield in 1997. Before taking up this post he worked as a Research Associate (Systematic Reviewer) at Public Health Medicine (University of Sheffield) in the development of National clinical practice guidelines for the management and treatment of type 2 diabetes. 

Current Research

Project Management:

Previous Projects

  1. Assessing Organisations to Improve Palliative Care in Europe (7 EU Countries) (EU Funded).
  2. Development and application of Sheffield Profile for Assessment and Referral for Care, SPARC (Funded by Elizabeth Clark Charitable Trust).
  3. Pain Assessment (Funded by the Department of Health).
  4. What progress has been made towards implementing national guidance on end of life care? A national survey of UK general practices (Funded by Macmillan Cancer Support).
  5. Benefits and barriers of taking part in breast cancer clinical trials.
  6. Development of National clinical practice guidelines for the management and treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Activities & Distinctions

Undertaking a doctoral study (staff candidate).

Principle Funding Sources

Macmillan Cancer Support

Members of Research Group

Palliative Care Research Society

Representative Publications

Ahmed N, SA Payne, Ahmedzai SH. letter to the editor 2009. Age and Ageing. Advance Access published September 24, 2009.

Hughes PM, Bath PA, Ahmed N, Noble B. What progress has been made towards implementing national guidance on end of life care? A national survey of UK general practices. First published on October 16, 2009 Palliative Medicine 2009, doi:10.1177/0269216309346591.

Ahmed N, Bestall JC, Payne SA, Noble B, Ahmedzai SH. The use of cognitive interviewing methodology in the design and testing of a screening tool for supportive and palliative care needs. Supportive Care in Cancer 2009 Jun;17(6):665-73.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Vora V, Hillam S, Paz S. Supportive care for patients with gastrointestinal cancer (Cochrane Systematic Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2004, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Updated 2009.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Vora V, Hillam S, Paz S. Chemotherapy plus supportive care improves survival and quality of life in advanced or metastatic gastrointestinal cancer more than supportive care alone. Review. Evidence Based Nursing (BMJ Journals). Volume 8, Number 1, 18. January 2005.

Ahmedzai SH, Payne SA, Bestall JC, Ahmed N, Dobson K, Clark D, Noble B. 2004. Developing a screening measure to assess the distress caused by advanced illness that may require referral to specialist palliative care. Academic Palliative Medicine Unit, Sheffield Palliative Care Studies Group, The University of Sheffield. Final Report.

Ahmed N, Bestall JC, Ahmedzai SH, Payne SA, Clark D, Noble B (2004). Systematic review of the problems and issues of accessing specialist palliative care by patients, carers and health and social care professionals. Palliative Medicine, Volume 18, Number 6, 525-542. 1 September 2004, Arnold.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Vora V, Hillam S, Paz S. Supportive care for patients with gastrointestinal cancer (Cochrane Systematic Review). In: The Cochrane
Library, Issue 3, 2004, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bestall JC, Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Payne SA, Noble B, Clark D (2004). Access and referral to specialist palliative care: patients' and professionals' experiences. International Journal of Palliative Nursing. Volume 10, Number 8, 381 -389.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Vora V, Hillam S, Paz S (2002). Supportive care for patients with gastrointestinal cancer (Protocol for a Cochrane Review). In: The
Cochrane Library, lssue 1: 2002.

Book Chapters

Ahmed N. Noble B, Ahmedzai SH. 2010. The Organisation of Palliative Care in England. (Book Chapter). Assessing Organisations to Improve Palliative Care in Europe. Design and Book Production: Vantilt Publishers, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Martien Frijns, Doetinchem, the Netherlands.

Ahmedzai SH, Ahmed N (2003). Cough in cancer patients. In: Chung F, Widdicombe J, Boushey H (eds). Cough: causes, mechanisms and therapy. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford.

Published abstracts

Ahmed N, Hughes P, Winslow M, Bath P, Collins K, Noble B. Feasibility Study of the Sheffield Profile for Assessment and Referral for Care (SPARC): A Holistic Needs Questionnaire. 12th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care, Lisbon, Portugal May 18-21 2011. Published in Palliative Medicine. 12th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care, Lisbon, Portugal May 18-21 2011.

The 9th Palliative Care Congress was held at: The Sage Gateshead, Newcastle Gateshead, UK, 14-16 March 2012. Presented in Gateshead Newcastle. Published in BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care 2012 http://spcare.bmj.com/content/2/Suppl_1/A43.3.abstract?sid=049ec334-52af-4751-a31c-8f5b3ae5e38a  

Abstracts of the 7th World, Research Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), Trondheim, Norway, Published in Palliative Medicine.

Ahmed N, Bestall JC, Ahmedzai SH, Payne SA, Clark D, Noble B (2004). Systematic review of the problems and issues of accessing specialist palliative care by patients, carers and health and social care professionals. Palliative Medicine, Volume 18, Number 2: pp 171 (poster 46).

Bestall JC, Ahmed N, Payne SA, Clark D, Noble B, Ahmedzai SA (2003). Improving access to palliative care: development of a screening measure for professionals, patients and carers. European Journal of Palliative Care; Abstracts of the 8th Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC): 129.

Stevens T, Ahmed N, Mitchell N, Wilde D, Ahmedzai SH (2002). Consumer led patient information: a consensus study. 3rd European Breast Cancer Conference (Barcelona). European Journal of Cancer, Vol 38, Supplement 3: pp.75.

Ahmed N, Stevens T, Ahmedzai SH (2002). A review of RCT recruitment data. European Journal of Cancer, Vol 38, Supplement 3: pp. S78.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH (2001). Effectiveness of 'supportive care' for cancer patients. European Journal of Palliative Care; Abstracts of the 7th Congress of the European Association of Palliative Care: 11 2.

Conference and Seminar Papers: Oral Presentations

Ahmed N. Holistic assessment of supportive and palliative care needs.1st Year MPhil/PhD/MD Presentations. The University of Sheffield. Thursday 6th May 2010.

Ahmed N, Ahmedzai SH, Engels Y, Gomez-Batiste X, Hasselaar J, Jaspers B, Mollard JM, Klaschik E, Leppert W, Menten J, Noble B, Paz S, Vanbeek K, Woitha K, Vissers K. Access and referral to palliative care in seven European countries- an EU perspective. EAPC, Vienna, Austria May 2009.

Ahmed N. Trans-Pennine Palliative Care Research Network Meeting, The University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. Developing Sheffield Profile for Assessment and, Referral to Care (SPARC). October 2005.

In Press

Carrington L and Bath PA (Information School, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom) and Hughes P, Ahmed N and Noble B (Academic Unit of Supportive Care, School of Medicine, and Biomedical Sciences, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom): Information management and quality of palliative care in General Practices: secondary analysis of a UK study. Journal of Information Science.