Robert Twycross is a retired British physician and writer
Education
Twycross graduated from Oxford University, receiving a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery in 1965. During his tenure there, Twycross completed studies on the effectiveness of morphine, diamorphine and methadone in managing cancer pain.
Career
He was a pioneer of the hospice movement during the 1970s, when he helped palliative care gain recognition as an accepted field of modern medicine. Twycross served as the Director of the World Health Organization"s Collaborating Centre for Palliative Care from 1988–2005, which signalled a period of extensive travel and teaching around the world, most notably to Poland, India, and Argentina. He also served for 25 years at Sir Michael Sobell House in Oxford, from 1976–2001, first as the National Health Service Medical Director and later as Clinical Reader in Palliative Medicine, Oxford University, and Consultant Physician.
In 1996 he was elected Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists "for services to medicine," the first physician to be elected from the field of palliative medicine and hospice care.
Twycross retired from Oxford University and the National Health Service in 2001. In 2004, Twycross, along with Doctor Andrew Wilcock, founded palliativedrugs.com Limited, to provide "essential independent information for health professionals worldwide about drugs used in palliative and hospice care." In addition to publishing books, they maintain the website www.palliativedrugs.com, where the information from the Palliative Care Formulary is available on-line.
The website has received positive reviews, and had some 20,000 registered members as of October 2011. The latest book to be published by palliativedrugs.com, the Palliative Care Formulary 4th edition, was published in October 2011 and is available through www.palliativedrugs.com.