Dear readers:

Happy New Year and welcome again to the IAHPC Newsletter. This is my first message as the new Chair of the Board of IAHPC. I am honored to have been elected to this position and for being able to continue the great work of the past Chairmen and Board members. IAHPC is a unique organization capable of helping with the promotion and development of palliative care around the World and I am excited to participate in this effort. I am joining a wonderful and talented team of 22 Board members from around the world and look forward to working with them.

I am also proud to announce that the following members have been elected to our Board of Directors for a period of three years:

1. Ednin Hamzah, MD (Malaysia)

Dr. Hamzah is currently the Medical Director and CEO of Hospis Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. He teaches palliative care modules in the medical and nursing

schools at the University of Malaya, the National University of Malaysia, and the International Medical University. Dr. Hamzah earned his medical degree from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, in the UK. He is a member of the Malaysian Hospice Council, the Malaysian Oncological Society, a council member of the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network and Vice-Chairman of the Education Committee and Technical Adviser of the Malaysia Breast Cancer Welfare Association and the National Cancer Registry in Malaysia.

2. Nathan Cherny, MD (Israel)

Dr. Cherny is Director of the Cancer Pain & Palliative Medicine Unit in the Dept. of Medical Oncology at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. He received his medical degree from Monash University Medical School in Melbourne, Australia and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians with specialty accreditation in Medical Oncology and Palliative Medicine. He was a pain fellow in the Pain and Palliative Medicine Service, Dept Neurology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA. Dr. Cherny has published extensively and is a current member of the Palliative Care Taskforce of the European Society of Medical Oncology.

3. Gian Domenico Borasio, MD (Germany)

Dr. Borasio is currently Professor and Acting Chairman at the Interdisciplinary Center for Palliative Medicine and Head of the Motor Neuron Disease Research Group in the Department of Neurology at Munich University Hospital in Germany. He received his medical degree from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München Germany, with scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service and the Cusanuswerk. He later held a post-doctoral position at the Max-Planck-Institute for Psychiatry in the Department of Neurochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. He is Board certified in Neurology and received a Diploma in Palliative Medicine from University of Wales, Cardiff.

4. Margaret O'Connor, RN, PhD (Australia)

Dr. O'Connor currently holds the Vivian Bullwinkel Chair in Nursing Palliative Care in the School of Nursing at Monash University in Melbourne. She received her PhD in Nursing from La Trobe University, her Master of Nursing from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Theology from Melbourne College of Divinity.

5. Liz Gwyther, MD (South Africa)

Dr Gwyther is currently Coordinator of National Education and Research and Director of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa (HPCA), and Director of Helderberg Hospice. She received her medical degree at the University of Cape Town and a Diploma and a Master of Science degree in Palliative Medicine at the University of Wales. Currently she is also a senior lecturer in Palliative Medicine in the University of Cape Town and a Member of the Academy of Family Practice of South Africa.

I am also glad to inform you that the following Board members have been re-elected for an additional term:

1. Eduardo Bruera, MD (USA)

2. M.R. Rajagopal, MD (India)

3. Roger Woodruff (Australia)

4. Jan Stjernswärd (Sweden)

5. Carla Ripamonti (Italy)

Please join me in welcoming all of them to IAHPC.

For the next three years we will continue supporting programs in developing countries and focus our efforts on initiatives and strategies that prove to be most effective. Palliative care is in a growing phase globally and as the number of patients requiring our services increase, we will strive to make palliative and hospice care accessible, especially in developing countries.

I encourage you to continue collaborating with IAHPC by either donating funds to the organization or sending us medical supplies and books to our Clearing House Program. I look forward to a year full of success stories and palliative care developments from around the World.

Sincerely,

Kathy Foley, MD
Chair, Board of Directors