|
Regional Reports – India and Canada
The Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care – India Project
(EPEC-India)
A report by:
Vivek Khemka, MD
Cooper Cancer Institute
Camden, New Jersey, USA.
The EPEC-India Project was initiated to develop a curriculum that would meet the specific needs of India on a national and regional level taking into consideration its own medical, socio-cultural and legal environment. The project had its early origins in April 2005 when I traveled to India as an IAHPC Traveling Fellow. Prior to my travel, I had teamed up with Dr. Linda Emanuel, the founder and principal of the EPEC Project in Chicago, and Dr. M. R. Rajagopal, Pallium India. We conducted an informal feasibility study during that trip (for details see report in the June 2005 IAHPC Newsletter or on the web at http://www.hospicecare.com/newsletter2005/june05/travel-fellows.html).
Upon my return, we started looking into formalizing the process of adapting the EPEC curriculum in toto, including the text and trigger tapes. Drs. Gaytri Palat, Michael Preodor and Rajagopal traveled between India and the US to study the viability of such a project and, as a result, plans further crystallized. The goal was to create self-sustainable programs in India that would provide palliative care training.
Thanks to the work of many pioneers in India, there already exists an impressive model of palliative care education and service delivery based on a strong social network and organizational structure. The need, however, is still overwhelming and it was felt that the model needed to be expanded. Our immediate goal was to augment the education in palliative care by providing a curriculum that would provide a standard for both education and care in the field, to provide a de facto national standard in palliative care education and practice just as the EPEC curriculum had done in the US. Thus, we set out to create the EPEC-India curriculum which could be integrated into the existing system. Once the roadmap for the adaptation was prepared, The Lance Armstrong Foundation graciously provided us with funding support. We assembled a team of experts in the US and India and started work in February 2007. In addition to adapting the entire EPEC curriculum, we also developed additional trigger tapes and modules addressing issues such as children and cancer, developing palliative care services, HIV/AIDS and a few other important areas.
We completed the curriculum development in July. In order to test it, we organized a workshop at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, India from August 16-18, 2007. This was attended by palliative care experts and other physicians. The faculty included experts from India and the USA. The US faculty consisted of Linda Emanuel, Suresh Reddy and I.The faculty members in India were M.R. Rajagopal, Ram Rajagopalan, Rajasekharan Warrier, Vijayabhaskar Reddy Kandula, Reena George, Mary Ann Muckaden, Anjum Khan Joad, Gayatri Palat and Mallika Tiruvadanan.
The chancellor of Sri Ramachandra University the honorable Mr. Venkataachalam, the vice chancellor Dr. Rangaswami, and the pro-chancellor Dr. Parthasarathy provided their full support for this program. Logistical support from Dr. Anandan, the associate Dean, and Dr. Republica Sridhar ensured that the workshop went off smoothly.
Information and feedback gathered from this workshop has been used to make final adjustments to the curriculum. We expect to release the final curriculum in the next month. From that point on, the EPEC-India project will start working on identifying and helping, academically, to develop palliative care training centers across India.
In addition to the standard print format, the curriculum will be freely available on the web, as is currently the case for the EPEC Curriculum, and will also use the same approach of providing automatic permission to use and adapt the curriculum for educational, non-profit purposes.
|
EPEC-India
|
|
Click photo to view larger image
|
|
|
Linda Emanuel delivering the
keynote address
|
L to R =
University Vice-chancellor
Dr.Rangaswami, Pro-chancellor
Dr. T. K. Parthasarathy and
Chancellor Hon. Mr. V. R. Venkataachalam accepting the
EPEC curriculum
|
|
|
University Chancellor Hon.
Mr. V. R.Venkataachalam (left) accepting the EPEC-India
curriculum from
Dr. M. R. Rajagopal (right)
|
A group photo of some of
the faculty and participants
|
|
|
|
Participants in a plenary session
|
Participants in a plenary session
|
|
|
|
Vivek Khemka teaching
|
Suresh Reddy teaching
|
From Canada
The U.B.C Division of Palliative Care, Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver, Canada was honoured recently with a visit by Dr M.R.Rajagopla from Kerala, India on May 8th-10. He was the 1st Speaker in The U.B.C Division of Palliative Care International Distinguished Speaker Series.
Dr Rajagopal spoke to faculty, students and public participants from British Columbia at a series of academic and public events comprising formal lectures, small group teaching and regional health authority hospice visits. Participants learned about complex pain and symptom management in resource scarce environments, developing hospice and palliative care in India as well as the many social issues related to hospice and palliative care in developing countries.
We hope that Dr Rajagopal's visit will inspire future speakers from the developing world and heighten interest in, and support of, the important pioneering work of Dr Rajagopal and colleagues which has clearly enriched the lives of so many receiving hospice care in India.
Prepared by: Patricia Boston, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
Director, Division of Palliative Care
UBC Department of Family Practice
3rd Floor - 5950 University Boulevard
Vancouver, BC V5T 1Z3
Top of Page
|
