Mark Taubert is a German-British consultant doctor and professor of medicine at Cardiff University.[1][2] He is a palliative care physician in Wales, who according to the Western Mail[3] and Welsh Government website[4] has contributed significantly to the development of his specialty, and has received recognition as a doctor and campaigner, nationally and internationally.
He wrote to the late David Bowie in January 2016 about a conversation he held with a dying patient, a letter that was shared across the world.[5][6][7][8]
He is founder of TalkCPR, an international information campaign about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions. He is national chair of the Advance & Future Care Strategy Group for the NHS Wales Executive.
Media work
He has authored articles on medical topics and palliative care in international newspapers such as the Washington Post[9] and the Guardian.[10][11] Taubert founded Talk CPR,[12][13] an international information campaign that discusses do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation decisions, also known by the acronym DNACPR. His explanatory Talk CPR resources have been viewed over a million times worldwide,[14] and he has been interviewed and spoken about the topic on BBC News at Six and BBC News at 10.
Taubert has delivered a TEDx talk on the use of language in palliative care.[15] He has also featured on two palliative care themed recordings for the UK's BBC Listening Project in 2019[16] and 2020[17] and on BBC Horizon's 'We need to talk about Death' with Kevin Fong.[18]
Awards
He has won national and international awards for his teaching and clinical work, including a Bafta award as part of a care team featured in an ITV documentary.[19] He received the prestigious national BMJ/BMA Clinical Teacher of the year award,[20][21] the Best Trainer Award Wales 2016[22] and the Royal College of Physicians Excellence in Patient Care Award.[23]
In 2016, he published a thank you letter to David Bowie after the singer's death, with reference to Bowie's last album, Blackstar.[25][26] The letter was initially published in the British Medical Journal[27][28] and then the Independent Newspaper[29] and was shared by David Bowie's son Duncan Jones.[30] It went viral online and in worldwide newsrooms.[31][32][33] It was subsequently read out by actor Benedict Cumberbatch[34] and singer Jarvis Cocker[35] at public events. The letter addresses issues such as palliative care and planning for the end of life. Bowie's story became a way to communicate important aspects of dying with a palliative care patient.[36][37]
The letter was turned into a classical music string quartet composition for BBC Radio 3, featuring Taubert reading the letter.[38][36] It toured, premiering at the Royal Northern College of Music[39] and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. According to the Herald Newspaper Scotland it 'sound tracked a reading of an open letter to David Bowie by palliative care doctor Mark Taubert, which has been a celebrated part of the marking of the passing of the rock star, played here on the fourth anniversary of his death.'[40]
The open letter has also been printed in several books, including Dylan Jones' David Bowie- A Life[41] and Letters of Note - Music[42] by Shaun Usher, part of the Letters Live event brand, where the letter was read out twice.
