Dr Kim Bull

Dr Bull began her part-time university education in Switzerland as a mature student in 1992 whilst working part-time and bringing up three young children (aged 6 and twins aged 4).  She moved to the UK in 1994 and worked as a Teaching Assistant until 1998 when she began working at the University of Southampton as a Research Assistant, whilst studying for her MSc in Psychological Research Methods, having completed her BSc(Hons) in Psychology the same year.  To begin with, she worked on research related to children and young adult survivors of cancer and then in 2001 she began working on European treatment trials and research projects related to quality of life (QoL) in children treated for brain tumours, mainly medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain tumour in childhood.  Beginning in 2001 she studied children in the UK who had been part of the ‘PNET3’ European treatment trial for medulloblastoma then in 2003, she began to study QoL outcomes in children enrolled in the subsequent European treatment trial for medulloblastoma, ‘PNET4’ and since 2014 she has been responsible for quality of survival data collection in the current European trial, 'PNET5' and since opening in 2021, the current European trial for high risk medulloblastoma, 'HRMB'.  In 2004 in the UK she began a research project investigating quality of life over time in children treated for medulloblastoma and cerebellar astrocytoma (the most common type of benign brain tumour in childhood) compared with a group of typically developing children.  This resulted in her graduating with a PhD in 2013 after 7 years of part-time study.  In 2011, with funds from the European Commission, she worked on the development of a neuro-oncology module (for children with medulloblastoma enrolled in 'PNET5') for HealthTracker, a web-based quality of life assessment system.  In 2020, HealthTracker was superseded by KLIK in ‘PNET5’ and is currently used in 'HRMB'.  KLIK was initially developed in the Netherlands for gathering patient-reported outcomes (PROs) for use in clinical practice and through the Brain Tumour Charity funded PROMOTE study, in 2016, Dr Bull was instrumental in bringing KLIK to the UK, developing and testing it for use in paediatric neuro-oncology clinics.  In 2015, in addition to Dr Bull's research activities, she began volunteering for many roles in medical education in the Faculty of Medicine.  Dr Bull likes to read in her spare time and spend time with her family and friends and with her aging horse, as well as walking and cycling in the countryside and around Chichester harbour where she lives.   

Prizes

• Winner of the best in category prize (2016)
• The Dean’s award for postdoctoral researchers (2018)
• Michael Arthur Prize (2008)