Meet Emma Al-Khabbaz

Kuwaiti physician, Dr Emma Al-Khabbaz, is undertaking a palliative care fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) in London as part of her goal to bring lessons from GOSH’s high level of paediatric palliative care back to Kuwait. Dr Al-Khabbaz is currently over half way through her first year of fellowship in palliative care and has been able to work alongside some of the world’s most renowned medical professionals in the field.

As a fellow, Dr Al-Khabbaz forms part of an interdisciplinary team working closely with children with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions and their families. Palliative care experts provide total care of patients at a time when their disease is not longer responsive to curative treatment. As a palliative care fellow, Dr Al-Khabbaz is developing her knowledge in areas including supportive and specialist symptom management, guidance with care planning, bereavement care and support for complex ethical decisions.

Dr Al-Khabbaz chose GOSH as she heard it had a reputation for excellent palliative care provision and has an accredited program by the Royal College of Paediatrics. During her fellowship at GOSH, Dr Al-Khabbaz has access to a variety of learning tools that includes formalised teaching sessions, day to day clinical duties, grand rounds, and online training modules.

Speaking about the experience, Dr Al-Khabbaz said: “My Palliative Care Fellowship has allowed for many learning opportunities given the central London location and has helped give more experience in providing palliative care for children. GOSH has many specialty teams with expert knowledge to learn from. The hospital also sees patients from all over the world; I have found it interesting and rewarding working with families of different cultures and faiths.”