IAHPC Traveling Scholar’s Report

I have been involved with palliative care since 2000 and had the good fortune to learn from pioneers within our country. I have been privileged to observe the growth of the movement. Thanks to a traveling scholarship grant from IAHPC, I was able to visit, as an observer, the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and also attend both an Intensive Board Review Course in Hospice and Palliative Care and a National Conference on Symptom Control.

Dr. Eduardo Bruera, Chair and Director of the Department, provided keen insight to the challenges of providing care through a focused and unhurried integration of palliative care into existing services while remaining true to the cultural and spiritual needs of the patients and families. It was very instructive to observe how a hospital chaplain is able to interact, and contribute, to the clinical team. Additionally, I learned about the importance of cancer support groups and how they are started.

All of this together with the advice I received will help me set clear goals and objectives in my setting. Particularly interesting was the results of an institutional study conducted at MD Anderson to determine the importance of the name of the outpatient palliative service and how this affects the number of referrals - the outcome resulted in a change of the name from “Outpatient Palliative Care Clinic” to “Supportive Care Center.”

I found MD Anderson’s treatment protocols and some of the information on non-pharmacologic treatments of fatigue and cachexia very helpful. The importance of using paramedical personnel to broaden the scope of service was illuminating.

Dr Vallath Nandini
Bangalore, Karnataka
India