Education & Training > Teaching Faculty
Teaching Faculty
Started in 1998, this department focuses on providing palliative care training to others by conducting modular workshops in collaboration with the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN). Our educators and instructors also come from international teaching faculties with great expertise and teaching experience. These workshops attract doctors and nurses from Malaysia as well as around the region. This department delivers tutorial-based teachings, practical exercises, and interactive teaching experiences to address the core areas of palliative care. This department is a useful training resource for Malaysia and the Asia Pacific region.
Faculty Members
Dr Rebecca Coles-Gale
Jan Phillips
Since 2000, Jan has been a regular visitor to Hospis Malaysia as well as the Rachel House Paediatric Palliative CareTeam in Jakarta, Indonesia. Over more recent times, she has travelled as a faculty member of the Lien Collaborative APHN programmes to both Myanmar and Bangladesh. Prior to her APHN involvement Jan lived and worked at Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Lahore, Pakistan where she assisted in the development of their palliative care service.
Dr Ghauri Aggarwal
Sumytra Menon
From 2008-2009, Sumy was appointed as Legal Consultant to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth & Sports to draft the Code of Practice for the new Mental Capacity Act. This sparked a developing interest for her in health law, specifically the law relating to mental capacity and end of life care.
Sumy is a Member of the Joint Steering Committee for Advanced Care Planning where the mandate is to recommend, implement and evaluate policies that pertain to the ACP programme management across the care continuum in all healthcare settings. She has delivered numerous talks and led workshops to train health professionals on the legal and ethical aspects of mental capacity and end of life care.
Dr Linda Sheahan, FRACP, FAChPM
Honorary Associate VELiM
She has had a longstanding interest in bioethics, undertaking her Honours in Medicine looking at the brain death debate, and completing her Masters in Bioethics through Monash University in 2004 with research into preimplantation genetic screening. In 2007, she undertook a Fellowship in Clinical and Organisational Ethics with the Joint Centre for Bioethics in Toronto, and has maintained a collaborative role with this group on a number of projects, including Consent for Research in the Paediatric setting, and Living Organ Donation. She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2012 to explore the interface between palliative care and legalised physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, and continues active research in this area in the Australasian context. She is now an Honorary Associate with VELiM as a member of the clinical ethics network.
Dr Jan Maree Davis
She has played a major role in the design & implementation of the University of New South Wales Medical School curriculum. She is a conjoint lecturer in the UNSW School of Public Health & Community Medicine, and is actively involved in medical student teaching. She has presented at many palliative care conferences within Australia, and internationally. Dr Maree has a great interest in promoting the understanding of palliative care in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. The design and implementation of the End of Life Care Clinical Pathway Project at St George Hospital has been a major work of hers over the past more than ten years.
Liese Groot-Alberts
Dr Susan Marsden
Joan Marston
Dr Anthony Herbert
Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane, Australia
Professor Dr Amy Chow
Professor Chow’s scholarship and contribution to social work practice have been recognized by the following awards: Cross-Cultural Award, (ADEC) (2005); Cadenza Fellowship (2008); Best Abstract Award (Researcher) (2010); Distinguished Alumni Award (2013) (CUHK); Rainbow of Life Outstanding Individual Award (2013); Outstanding Social Worker Award (2014); Outstanding Teaching Award of the University of Hong Kong (2014); Outstanding Research Output Awards (2017-2018) (University of Hong Kong) and Research Recognition Award (ADEC) (2020).
Professor Gilbert Fan Kam Tong
Gilbert is currently the Chair for Volunteer Engagement, Institution Wellness Officer, Master MSW of the Department of Psychosocial Oncology, and HR Counsellor & Trainer (Employee Relations), Human Resource at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. His clinical interest is in griefwork, experiential counselling and groupwork, particularly in the application of experiential counselling of patients with advanced cancers. His research interests include the study of coping behaviours, meaning making and intervention models in cancer care.
Associate Professor Meera Agar
Braeside Hospital
Chair of the trial management committee, and member of both the scientific committee and Management Advisory Board; and is the site investigator for one of the national clinical sites. She is also the Deputy Chair of the Cancer Institute New South Wales Human Research Ethics Committee and a member of the scientific advisory committee and management executive for the Australian National Cooperative trials group – neurooncology (COGNO).