Message from the Chair
&
Executive Director
Kathleen M. Foley, MD (USA)
Liliana De Lima, MHA (USA)
Dear readers:
Welcome back to this edition of the IAHPC Newsletter (NL). Our NL has now over 5,000 subscribers and has become a great source for information dissemination around the world. We invite you to contribute articles and news about events, recent developments or other important issues in your countries so that others may learn about the progress being made in palliative and hospice care. This past October was an extremely busy month.
Board Elections
Our call for nominations of candidates to the IAHPC Board received an enthusiastic response from our members. Fourteen candidates from all over the world were presented. The board will elect six directors, based on several criteria, including their level of involvement in palliative care in their countries, their demonstrated leadership in the field, their interest in international palliative care initiatives and their potential to help IAHPC in the accomplishment of its mission. New members will be announced by the end of November and in our next edition of the NL.
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day
As you know, October 8th was the first World Hospice and Palliative Care Day by Voices for Hospice. This effort was coordinated by Help the Hospices and brought together health care providers, patients and the general public around the globe to celebrate hospice and palliative care. The level of advocacy and dissemination of the principles of palliative care reached critical masses of people, policy makers and health care providers. Congratulations to Help the Hospices and Voices for Hospice for this great success. We hope that countries around the world will continue to take advantage of the momentum that the Day generated and use it to promote changes in policy and practice to improve access to palliative care. IAHPC was proud to provide grants to ten developing countries to support the activities of the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. This edition includes some reports from Argentina, Colombia, India, Jordan, Lithuania, Philippines and Uruguay. The website edition includes photos and pictures of some of the activities
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Dr. Eduardo Bruera from MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Dr. Susan Krauter from Houston Hospice,
Dr.Eva Duarte from the NCI in Guatemala,
Liliana De Lima, and Ms Kalpana Baniya from Nepal |
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Liliana De Lima with Dr. Henry Ddungu from
Hospice Uganda in Uganda, Africa |
Traveling Scholarships
On October 10-14th we participated in a seminar organized by the Department of Palliative Care at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It was a great conference and we were able to support Dr. Eva Duarte from the National Cancer Institute in Guatemala and Ms Kalpana Baniya, RN, from B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Bharatpur, Nepal as Traveling Scholars to the meeting. Both stayed two weeks as clinical observers, visiting and learning in the palliative care department and at Houston Hospice. Ms Baniya presented her Hospice program in Nepal in our workshop on Palliative Care in the Developing World and Dr. Henry Ddungu from Uganda presented a plenary on the Hospice Uganda program. He received a standing ovation from the public in recognition of the hard work and success of the Hospice Uganda program.
Traveling Fellowships
We are also happy to announce that two Traveling Fellowships have been awarded to Doctors John Cresswell and Terry Magee to spend two weeks teaching palliative care in Ghana. They are invited by the Cancer Society of Ghana to deliver year 3 of a national cancer HIV and Palliative Care education program to cover all nine regions of Ghana. We look forward to their report after their return.
This edition of the NL includes a Traveling Fellowship Report by Doctor Ahmed Elsayem, from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, who spent one month teaching palliative care at Khartoum University in Sudan. There is no palliative care in this country and Dr. Elsayem has initiated a collaborative project to help initiate palliative care in the University. As a native of Sudan, he is very interested in making this happen. We are glad to have been able to support him and look forward to the progress of the Palliative Care Program at Khartoum University.
Focus on Palliative Care Programs in the World
Liliana recently returned from a trip to Spain where she participated in the VII Jornadas Nacionales de Cuidados Paliativos in Caceres organized by the Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos (SECPAL) and the Programa de Cuidados Paliativos of the Servicio Extremeño de Salud (Palliative Care program of the Health Care Services of Extremadura). These Jornadas were different from conventional palliative care meetings, as they focused on management, funding and policy issues. The long term success in the development of palliative care around the world will depend on the ability of health care providers to communicate effectively with policy makers and funders. Health care providers need to learn the language and work with their health authorities in order to be able to implement cost effective and efficient programs suitable to be incorporated into the countries' health care policies. Spain has taken some important steps that have guaranteed the provision of palliative care. First, the country has a structure of health care provision which facilitates the integration of services into the system. Second, palliative care has been recognized as a human right. These two, combined with a strong leadership of SECPAL, have had a significant impact in the outcome of care of patients in need.
During this trip, Liliana was also able to visit with the local health authorities in Extremadura. The Palliative Care Program of the Servicio de Salud de Extremadura received the IAHPC Institutional Award in 2003 as recognition for its ability to incorporate palliative care in the primary level within the health care system. It has proved to be cost effective and has been recognized as a model flexible and adaptable in developing countries. Palliative Care is guaranteed to all the population of the state of Extremadura regardless of diagnosis, age, condition and location in all levels of care.
New Developments
The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh has published a paper by Dr. Derek Doyle, our founder and board member, entitled " Palliative Medicine: the first 18 years of a new sub-specialty of General Medicine" with sections related to the UK, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Poland, Romania and New Zealand, USA and Canada. The paper is available online in http://www.rcpe.ac.uk/publications/articles/palliative_medicine.pdf
We invite you to read this wonderful publication and learn more about how palliative medicine is gaining recognition as a subspecialty in medicine.
One to One
for Hospice and Palliative Care Campaign
We recently launched a One to One for Hospice and Palliative Care campaign with our members. In this campaign we are asking our members to bring one new member to IAHPC. We have sent hundreds of letters which you should be receiving in the mail soon. Membership is an important way to support our organization and provides members the possibility of participating in our teaching programs. Membership can be individual or institutional and is affordable to all through a sliding fee schedule. Please join us in this campaign and help us to help others.
IAHPC Recognition Awards - Call for Nominations
We are now accepting applications for the IAHPC Recognition Awards Program in the individual, institutional and university categories. We invite those interested to nominate their program, university or an outstanding individual to this award as a way of providing recognition to those who have had a significant impact in the development of hospice and palliative care around the world. Applications for nominations are available in our website at www.hospicecare.com Click on IAHPC Programs and then select Awards.
Until next month,
Kathy Foley, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
© 2005 IAHPC Press 
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