Traveling Scholars Program Report
Fadi Abu-Farsakh
Travel date: October 7, 2020
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 11th EAPC Research Congress - Online
Origin: Grand Rapids, USA / Destination: Vilvoorde, Belgium
How was this meeting/activity helpful to you?
It was a great meeting, the platform is very user-friendly, there are hundreds of presentations that you can attend the time that works for you. I learned a lot especially regarding the recent updates in COVID and palliative care.
How will you new knowledge & acquired skills help in furthering your work in hospice and palliative care in your program/city/ or country?
There are many presentations talks about advancing in research, and how to invest in palliative care researches, with some good ideas. There are many presentations about updates in COVID and palliative care which were very helpful as I am dealing with critically ill COVID patients on daily basis to help with the goals of care.
How IAHPC Traveling Scholars Program be improved in order to help other future traveling scholars?
I am very glad that I was picked for this meeting, I wish there were more spots for IAHPC, I am not quite familiar with the system of picking the scholars, but I believe that being committed to palliative care and been working in this field is an essence.
Narrative summary highlighting the needs and challanges you face
Personally, having worked as a palliative care physician in Jordan, I was thrilled to see 3 presentations talking about palliative care situation in my country EAPC Meeting, they talked about the struggles in Jordan especially with the influx of refugees who have been unable to get the appropriate palliative care they need due to the high demand, complex medical illnesses, lack of palliative care specialists and lack of training of primary care physicians about the principles of palliative care and how to address and treat patient’s symptoms, as well as the marked shortage in opioids. I was happy to see that these problems are addressed in such a great meeting, and that would be the first step in finding solutions and increase the public awareness regarding these problems. The meeting was extremely useful in providing new information for me especially regarding research ideas, how to invest in research. It helped me also to get great updates about COVID and palliative care, opioid addiction and opioid use, management of delirium. Of note, the platform is very user-friendly, the quality of the presentations is great, and the conference added a lot for me. Thank you IAHPC for this generous grant.