Message from the Chair
and Executive Director
Dear readers:
The past two months have been very busy because of several meetings, projects and new and exciting developments.
1. 18th World AIDS Conference: This conference was held July 17-23rd in Vienna, Austria with almost 20,000 participants from 193 countries. For the first time in its history, there was a plenary related to palliative care by Dr. Elizabeth Gwyther, CEO of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa, she is also a member of the steering committee of the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance (WPCA) and a past member of our Board. The topic of her presentation was Care and Support: Integral to Comprehensive Care. Below is a photo of Dr. Gwyther during her presentation. We cheered and applauded her, both for a great presentation and for the fact that after all these years, a palliative care session was finally given the significant attention it deserves.
In addition to the plenary, there was an International Palliative Care booth sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI) in the main exhibit hall of the conference (a first as well in the history of the AIDS Conference). The international and pan national palliative care organizations were represented and it was a great way to jointly collaborate in order to spread the word about palliative care. Many thanks also to Claire Morris, from the WPCA, for her hard work and to the OSI for sponsoring the booth.
 
The picture on the left is in the International Palliative Care Booth at the exhibition hall and shows Ms Joan Marston (South Africa) Chair of the International Children’s Palliative Care Initiative (ICPCN) and Dr. Tseretse Maphosa from Zimbabwe. The picture on the right was taken during a march to advocate for access to HIV care. All of us working in palliative care had signs that stated Palliative Care is a Human Right and we wore t-shirts with the message that Palliative Care Improves Quality of Life. In the photo are Claire Morris from the WPCA, Julia Downing from Uganda, Diederik Lohman from Humans Rights Watch, Zodwa Sithole, from Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa and Liliana De Lima (LDL), our Executive Director.
2. Opioid Availability and Accessibility: Last month, IAHPC hosted a workshop in Lima, Peru, to identify the barriers affecting availability of, and accessibility to, opioids in the country. Thanks to a grant from OSI, we will make this part of a regional strategy that our organization will be working on during the next two years. The participants in the workshop included government authorities and prescribers who came together for two days and worked diligently to develop an action plan to eliminate pain and suffering in the country. Some of the barriers identified include the number of days (10) allowed for the prescription of opioids, the validity of the special prescription (3 days) and many others. At the conclusion of the workshop the participants agreed to work together on a series of steps to eliminate these and many others barriers. The coordinator of the country program is Dr. Maria del Rosario Berenguel who will lead this effort throughout this year and next. The photo below includes the participants in the workshop, as well as LDL and Dr. Rosa Buitrago, from Panama, who is the mentor and expert adviser to the program in Peru.
3. Traveling Scholarships : During the past two months, we awarded the following traveling scholarships:
- Dr. Lisa Manalo, Unit Head of the Palliative Care Service Department of Community and Family Medicine at FEU-NRMF Medical Center in Qezon City, Philippines to attend the 13 th World Congress on Pain of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) in Montreal, Canada.
- In collaboration with San Diego Hospice, IAHPC provided four Latin American palliative care workers with support for their travel and stay at the International Visiting Scholarship Program at the Institute of Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice in California, under the leadership of our board member, Dr. Frank Ferris.
The selected grantees were:
- Dr. Eva Duarte from Guatemala
- Dr. Omar Gomezese from Colombia
- Dr. Lilian Hidalgo from Peru
- Dr. Leonardo Consolim from Brazil
Congratulations to all the grantees for receiving these scholarships and many thanks to Dr Ferris for his support and interest in supporting palliative care education globally.
4. Panama’s new Palliative Care Law : The government of Panama has recently adopted a new palliative care law which is now in full force. The law recognizes palliative care as a component of care and requires health centers and hospitals to implement the steps needed to ensure appropriate access. This law has also a special provision requiring availability of medications, especially potent opioids for pain relief. Congratulations to the government of Panama on this achievement because it will improve the quality of the lives of patients and families in the country. Special recognition goes to Dr. Julio Santamaria, Vice Minister of Health (MOH), to Ms Myrna McLaughlin who is coordinating this at the government level and to a group of palliative care workers and advisers to the MOH, who worked very hard to make this happen. Congratulations to all for this wonderful achievement in Panama.
5.New Membership Benefits: As we announced last month, IAHPC is now offering to its members online access to the CINAHL database and several palliative care journals. As part of this strategy and to facilitate access to individuals living and working in developing countries, IAHPC has also adopted new membership fees. The new fee schedule is based on a country’s Gross National Income (GNI) as reported by the United Nations. We are very glad to be able to offer this to our colleagues in the global palliative care community and hope that those of you who are still not members will join us in our efforts to improve and promote palliative care in the world. To join IAHPC, click on http://www.hospicecare.com/join.htm
Until next month,
Roberto Wenk, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
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