Miriam Johnson graduated from Manchester University with honours in 1984. She completed her higher specialist training in palliative medicine in 1999, having gained her MD on “Venous thromboembolism (VTE) in advanced cancer”. The thesis focussed on the prevalence of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in hospice in-patients using light reflection rheography as a screening tool, and the management of established VTE in these people with advanced cancer and thrombosis. She was been Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine at Hull-York Medical School from 2006 – 2011 when she was promoted to Reader and is continuing her research interests in breathlessness and VTE.

She is a member of the NCRI palliative care clinical study group, its breathlessness research sub group and is an elected member of the Association for Palliative Medicine (UK)’s science committee. She holds two current NIHR grants (oxygen for people with chronic heart failure, and clinical decision making in VTE in people with advanced cancer) and has just completed a SuPaC funded project in non-pharmacological management of breathlessness.

She is lead palliative care research clinician for her cancer network and is local specialty group lead for palliative care for the North East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire region. Amongst her other publications in this field, she is a co-editor of the first book specifically addressing the problems of VTE in people with advanced disease.