Irene Higginson is a world leader in palliative care research. She has developed and validated new short measurement tools and outcome scales for use with patients and families. These have now spread across the globe to make tangible the more difficult to measure aspects of care in advanced disease. She leads a major programme of research into how to meet patients and families preferences for place of care at the end of life, and has discovered the factors that make home care possible. This work is now integral to the policies in many countries. Her research on palliative care in non-cancer conditions has changed the landscape of palliative care provision, moving it from a ‘cancer’ only model to embrace patients with heart, lung, and renal failure, neurological conditions and multi-organ failure.