Shirley H. Bush
MBBS, MRCGP, PgDip Pall Med, FAChPM
Investigator
Associate Professor, Division of Palliative Care
Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Investigator
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
About:
Dr. Shirley H. Bush is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Division of Palliative Care) at the University of Ottawa. She is a palliative care physician working in the academic inpatient Palliative Care Unit at Bruyère Health Saint-Vincent Hospital. She graduated from St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK.
Having originally worked as a vocationally trained General Practitioner in inner south London, UK, she later trained in palliative care, oncology and hematology in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. She was recognized as a specialist in Palliative Medicine in Australia in 2000. After spending a year as Visiting Scientist in the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, she moved to Ottawa in 2009 to take up an academic position. She has worked as a palliative care physician for over 25 years and was awarded the Bruyère Physician Excellence Award in 2017.
Dr. Bush has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications. (ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8907-1283). She was the first author and team leader for the 2018 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) delirium clinical practice guideline.
Along with her colleague, Dr. Peter Lawlor, Dr. Bush has developed international research collaborations with Australian and UK delirium researchers. In addition to experience in conducting clinical trials of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for the prevention and management of delirium in palliative care populations, her academic work includes the adaptation and implementation of clinical practice guidelines to bring evidence to the bedside.
Research Interests:
Delirium management in palliative care patients, experiential impact of delirium on patients, family and professional caregivers, guideline implementation, mixed methods research.
Select Publications:
Bush SH, Skinner E, Lawlor PG, Dhuper M, Grassau PA, Pereira JL, MacDonald AR, Parsons HA, Kabir M. (2022). Adaptation, implementation, and mixed methods evaluation of an interprofessional modular clinical practice guideline for delirium management on an inpatient palliative care unit. BMC Palliative Care.
Lawlor PG, McNamara-Kilian MT, MacDonald AR, Momoli F, Tierney S, Lacaze-Masmonteil N, Dasgupta M, Agar M, Pereira JL, Currow DC, Bush SH. (2020). Melatonin to prevent delirium in patients with advanced cancer: a pilot study to assess feasibility of a double blind, randomized, controlled trial. BMC Palliative Care.
Bush SH, Lawlor PG, Ryan K, Centeno C, Lucchesi M, Kanji S, Siddiqi N, Morandi A, Davis DHJ, Laurent M, Schofield N, Barallat E, Ripamonti CI; ESMO Guidelines Committee. (2018). Delirium in adult cancer patients: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines. Annals of Oncology.
Bush SH, Marchington KL, Agar M, Davis DHJ, Sikora L, Tsang TWY. (2017). Quality of clinical practice guidelines in delirium: a systematic appraisal. BMJ Open.
Bush SH, Grassau PA, Yarmo MN, Zhang T, Zinkie SJ, Pereira JL. (2014). The Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale modified for palliative care inpatients (RASS-PAL): A pilot study exploring validity and feasibility in clinical practice. BMC Palliative Care.
Contact:
sbush@bruyere.org