Dear Readers: This month there are several important announcements:
1. As many of you already know, we are now accepting applications for our IAHPC Annual Recognition
Awards Program in three categories:
1. Individuals "The Vittorio Ventafridda Award"
2. Institutions and
3. Universities
2. We are in the process of updating
our International Directory where we have more than 800 hospices and palliative care programs listed from around the world. Please take a minute to verify that the information we have for your program
or institution is correct in the International Directory.
If you need to make changes, updates or corrections, please use form at the directory. If your institution or program is not listed in our International Directory, please send us the name of the
institution or program, the name of the contact person, address, telephone, fax, email and URL if available. The International Directory serves as an important tool for networking and as a resource
for patients and families who look for treatment centers around the globe.
3. We are proud to announce that the IAHPC website has received the Health on the Net (HON) Foundation
Code. The Health on the Net Foundation has elaborated the Code of Conduct to help standardize the reliability of medical and health information available on the World-Wide Web. The HON code defines
a set of rules to hold Web site developers to basic ethical standards in the presentation of information and makes sure readers always know the source and the purpose of the data they are reading.
Many thanks to Anne Laidlaw, our webmaster, for her hard work and help to make this possible.
4. Many of you have already seen the 2nd Edition of the IAHPC
Manual of Palliative Care which was recently uploaded in our site. The Manual was written by two of our most dedicated board members, Drs Derek Doyle and Roger Woodruff. It provides basic
and useful information on the treatment of symptoms associated with advanced disease as well as ethical, spiritual and administrative issues and has already proven to be on of the most visited pages
in our website. The IAHPC Manual is available here. We invite you to take advantage of this wonderful resource and use it in your
practice and teaching activities.
5. The Public Library of Science (PLOS) has presented the inaugural issue of PLoS Medicine,
an international open-access medical journal from the Public Library of Science. The issue includes an article on Palliative Care in Africa and the Caribbean
by Dingle Spence, Anne Merriman and Agnes Binagwaho. The article can be viewed by clicking on http://medicine.plosjournals.org/
then click on Table of Contents where you will find the article.
6. The Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at the MD Anderson Cancer Center recently
organized its 8th Annual Interdisciplinary Approach to Palliative Medicine in Cancer Care. Many thanks to MDACC and the meeting organizers for giving us free space to set an IAHPC desk in the exhibition
area. Two of our Board members attended the meeting as guest speakers: Dr MR Rajagopal from Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in India and Dr. Nessa Coyle from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer
Center in New York. We were very glad to see both of them in Houston and discuss some ways in which we can continue to help the promotion of palliative care around the world. Below are some pictures
of the meeting.
