Robert Twycross

Robert Twycross (born 29 January 1941) is a retired British physician and writer. 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 graduated from Oxford University, receiving a BM BCh in 1965. After completing his MRCP, in 1971 he was appointed as a Clinical Research Fellow at St Christopher's Hospice by Dame Cicely Saunders.

During his tenure there, Twycross completed studies on the effectiveness of morphine, diamorphine and methadone in managing cancer pain. These studies helped standardize and simplify the treatment of pain, eliminating more complicated treatments such as the Brompton cocktail. This research led to Dr. Twycross being awarded the University of Oxford higher degree of Doctor of 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 NHS 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.

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