Ben Bowers

Research group: Health Systems Design

Twitter: @Ben_Bowers__

Biography

Dr Ben Bowers is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Engineering Design Centre. He is a Wellcome Post-Doctoral Research Fellow and practices clinically as an Honorary Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care. Ben is also the Deputy Theme Lead for NIHR ARC East of England’s Palliative and End of Life Care theme.

He leads a programme of interdisciplinary research focused on improving the care of patients dying at home. Ben’s Wellcome post-doctoral interdisciplinary research is investigating the human and system factors involved in the safe, effective and timely use of injectable symptom control medications. This research draws on engineering design, patient safety and social science disciplines.

Ben was recently announced as one of the 75 nurses and midwives whose work has had an especially significant impact on the NHS since its creation. He was awarded the RCGP & SAPC Outstanding Early Career Researcher in 2024 and the European Association for Palliative Care Early Researcher Award 2023, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to international palliative care and primary care research.

Ben is also based in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge. He is a Post-Doctoral Associate at Jesus College and a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute.

Selected recent publications

Brown A, Yardley S, Bowers B, et al. Multiple points of system failure underpin continuous subcutaneous infusion safety incidents in palliative care: A mixed methods analysis. Palliative Medicine 2025; 39(1): 7-21

Bowers B, Pollock K, Wilkerson I, Massou E, Brimicombe J, Barclay S. Administering injectable medications prescribed in the anticipation of the end of life in the community: A mixed-methods observational study. International Journal of Nursing Studies 2024. 153: 104734

Morgan L, Barclay S, Pollock K, Massou E, Bowers B. The financial costs of anticipatory prescribing: A retrospective observational study of prescribed, administered and wasted medications using community clinical records. Palliative Medicine 2023; 32(10): 1544-1561

Bowers B, Antunes BCP, Etkind S, Hopkins S, Winterburn I, Kuhn I, Pollock K, Barclay S. Anticipatory prescribing in community end-of-life care: systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence since 2017. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2023. Online First: 26 May 2023

Bowers B, Pollock K, Barclay S. Simultaneously reassuring and unsettling: a longitudinal qualitative study of community anticipatory medication prescribing for older patients. Age and Ageing 2022. 51(12): Online First

Bowers B, Pollock K, Barclay S. Unwelcome memento mori or best clinical practice? Community end-of-life anticipatory medication prescribing practice: a mixed methods observational study. Palliative Medicine 2022; 36(1): 95-104

Papavasiliou E, Hoare S, Bowers B, Kelly MP, Barclay S. Out-of-hours services and end-of-life hospital admissions: A complex intervention systematic review and narrative synthesis. British Journal of General Practice 2021; 71(711): e780-e787

Bowers B, Barclay SS, Pollock K, Barclay S. General Practitioners’ decisions about prescribing end-of-life anticipatory medications: a qualitative study. British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70(699) e731-739

Bowers B, Pollock K, Barclay S. Administration of end-of-life drugs by family caregivers during covid-19 pandemic. British Medical Journal 2020; 369: m1615

Bowers B, Ryan R, Kuhn I, Barclay S. Anticipatory prescribing of injectable medications for adults at the end of life in the community: A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis. Palliative Medicine 2019; 33(2): 160-177