Meera Agar

Meera Agar, MBBS, PhD, FRACP, FAChPM is Professor of Palliative Medicine at the University of Technology Sydney and Director of IMPACCT (Improving Palliative, Aged and Chronic Care through Clinical Research and Translation). A world leader in clinical research in palliative medicine, Professor Agar is best known for her landmark multisite randomized trial, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2017, which challenged the widespread use of haloperidol and risperidone for managing agitated delirium at the end of life, demonstrating that antipsychotics provided no benefit over placebo and were associated with increased distress. This practice-changing study reshaped international guidelines on delirium management in the dying patient. Professor Agar leads the Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC) in Australia, one of the few national networks conducting rigorous phase III clinical trials in palliative medicine. Her research spans delirium pathophysiology, hospice quality indicators, advance care planning implementation, and the ethics of end-of-life sedation. She has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers and is a recipient of the NHMRC Practitioner Fellowship.