International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care
December 2010
RE: The December issue of our Newsletter
Dear Members and Colleagues:
The December issue of our newsletter is now on our website at insert. Please find below an abbreviated edition.
Table of Contents
Message from the Chair and Executive Director
Call for nominations for 6 IAHPC Board of Directors
From Lebanon, an IAHPC Traveling Scholar’s Report
Article of the Month
Contribution from IAHPC Board Member Dr. Michael Bennett
Palliative Care Book of the Month and Other Reviews
Announcements
Webmaster’s Corner
Best wishes,
Roberto Wenk, MD, Chair
William Farr, PhD, MD, Vice-Chair and Editor
Dear readers:
Welcome to this final issue of our Newsletter for the year 2010.
At the end of this year, six of our Board members will be completing their terms. They are: Gian Domenico Borasio (Germany); Eduardo Bruera (USA); Frank Ferris (USA); Geoffrey Hanks (UK); Richard Harding (UK); and Peter Hudson (Australia). Please join us in thanking each of them for their contributions to IAHPC and for their efforts in helping the organization achieve its mission. It has been an honor for us to have worked with them as members of our Board.
We recently sent an announcement to IAHPC members asking them to nominate candidates for these positions. We are seeking junior and senior candidates to join our board to advance palliative care in the world. This edition of the Newsletter has a copy of the announcement including the information and criteria to apply. The deadline to submit a nomination is December 31, 2010. Newly elected members will be announced in January 2011.
As the year ends, we are proud of the things we were able to achieve through our programs and projects… Some examples of our 2009 and 2010 activities that targeted the improvement of care of patients and families around the world included:
· A new membership fee schedule based on the Gross National Income of the country where the applicant lives. Dues start at $10 per year
· IAHPC members now have FREE access to the CINAHL database… including the following palliative care journals:
o Indian Journal of Palliative Care
o International Journal of Palliative Nursing
o Internet Journal of Pain, Symptom Control & Palliative Care
o Journal of Palliative Medicine
o Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy
o Palliative Medicine
o Progress in Palliative Care
· We developed and implemented Pallipedia ® http://pallipedia.org/ … an increasing number of members of the palliative care community from the entire world.
· We initiated the Essential Practices in Palliative Care project that aims to identify and list those practices that are considered essential for the implementation of palliative care in primary care.
· We developed an Opioid Essential Prescription package (OEP) project aimed to identify a simple, essential package of medications for patients who have been started on an opioid regimen.
· We collaborated with the World Health Organization, in several projects and publications.
· Ninety-eight traveling scholarships were awarded to individuals from 35 countries. A list of all the names of our grantees… are listed in the following link: insert.
· Three traveling fellowships were awarded to individuals to teach palliative care in developing countries …
· An advocacy strategy was developed to improve access to opioid analgesics for medical needs in Latin America using workshops in Peru, Chile, Panama and Guatemala.
· IAHPC’s Website expanded at www.hospicecare.com … our Bookshop which contains hundreds of books reviewed by Dr. Roger Woodruff one of our board members.
· IAHPC’s Newsletter (NL) continues to provide updated information … In addition to our regular programs mentioned above,
· …we were able to collaborate with other organizations in several ways.
We could not have achieved all of this without the generous support of our board of directors, our members, donors, companies, foundations and organizations that believe in IAHPC’s mission and in our ability to have an impact on the promotion and development of palliative care. Our ability to continue to help others depends heavily on the support we receive from all of you, so please consider donating to IAHPC. You can donate through our website at https://www.hospicecare.com/give/donate.html
We face many challenges in the near future, especially because of the current global economic situation. We are aware that we face financial constraints and have prepared ourselves to meet these challenges... We wish to thank those who make our work worthwhile; they are the patients and their families, the health care workers, and the volunteers who dedicate and give so much to palliative care.
In the next days, many of you will receive a letter in the mail requesting a donation to IAHPC. Please remember that your contributions make a big difference and any amount is helpful to us. IAHPC is a 501(c)(3) organization under the US Internal Revenue Code. Our ability to continue to help others depends heavily on your support; please consider donating to IAHPC at https://www.hospicecare.com/give/donate.html
Best wishes to you, your friends and families for the upcoming holidays and we hope that next year will be a happy and successful one.
Regards,
Roberto Wenk, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
Call for Nominations of 6 IAHPC Board of Directors
The IAHPC is proud to announce a public call for nominations to 6 seats in the IAHPC Board of Directors. IAHPC members are invited to nominate a junior or senior health professional actively working in hospice and palliative care with demonstrated interest in the development of international palliative care initiatives and issues.
Criteria:
Nominees may be located in any country, have academic backgrounds and must fulfill the following criteria:
1. Both nominee and nominator must be active members of the IAHPC
2. Have demonstrated work and commitment in palliative/hospice care in his/her field
3. Currently holding or having held a position within a teaching hospital, university or palliative care organization.
4. Have demonstrated willingness to participate and work in the board activities including working groups and task forces.
5. Have demonstrated interest in international palliative and hospice care issues
6. Be able to communicate effectively in English.
7. Candidates must have access to the Internet and hold an active e-mail account.
The maximum number of candidates that can be nominated by each member is one. Deadline for a nomination is December 31, 2010.
Candidates and nominators both need to be active IAHPC members. If you are not a current member, we invite you to join IAHPC and participate in this important process. You may join through our website by clicking here.
To submit a nomination, please complete the nomination form through our website by clicking here (link to the nomination form in http://www.hospicecare.com/submit/forms/nominations.htm )
After the nomination, candidates may be contacted by the nominating committee for additional information.
The term of the new members will begin on January 1, 2011 and will end December 31, 2013. The new directors will be elected by a vote of the current Directors and will be announced in January 2011.
We look forward to your participation in this process and to the nomination of candidates.
Nominating Committee
IAHPC Board of Directors
From Lebanon, an IAHPC Traveling Scholar’s Report
Anne, I can’t get these paragraph margins to straighten!
I attended a series of educational sessions at the 18th International Congress on Palliative Care in Montréal, Canada.
I am a palliative care nurse at the BALSAM, the Lebanese Center for Palliative Care, which is a newly established non-governmental organization that aims to promote the concept of palliative care in Lebanon by improving the quality of life by relieving the suffering of people living with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses… Palliative medicine is not recognized as a discipline in the Lebanese healthcare… I also had the opportunity to present my research at the conference…
Please visit the following link for the full report insert
Jananne Hanna
Beirut, Lebanon
Article of the Month
Preferences of patients with advanced lung cancer regarding the involvement of family and others in medical decision-making
Pardon K et al. on behalf of the EOLIC-Consortium
Journal of Palliative Medicine 2010; 13 (10) : 1199-1203
The involvement of family members or close friends in the decision-making process of the patients with cancer should be considered by physicians in order to respect patients’ autonomy…
The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the preferences of competent patients with advanced lung cancer concerning their wishes regarding the involvement of family and/or others, and their preferences in case they are no longer able to make medical decisions…
A total of 93.6% of patients wanted family involvement in decision-making if they lost competence, 23% of these preferring a primary physician; 41% wanted both physician and family control and 36% desired primarily family control. About 50% of the patients changed their preference over time…
This study shows that these patients can change their minds over time regarding their future preferences about the degree of family involvement in decision making. For this reason, physicians should regularly discuss preferences with their patients.
The full review may be found at insert
Dr. Carla Ripamonti is an IAHPC Board Member, she lives in Italy and her biography may be viewed at insert
Contribution from IAHPC Board Member Michael Bennett
Improving cancer pain management through interventions that change behaviour
According to recent reviews, despite the availability of the WHO analgesic ladder, pain due to cancer remains prevalent and largely under-treated. The analgesic ladder is a reasonably effective intervention for cancer pain and results in around 75% of patients receiving satisfactory pain control…
… but substantial improvements in pain control can also be achieved by addressing the common barriers to good pain management. Barriers are often due to attitudes and behaviours towards pain and analgesia of both patients and healthcare professionals…
… changes in the patient’s knowledge seem to bring about beneficial changes in their behaviour however the causal mechanisms are not clear…
In contrast, educational interventions directed at professionals, for example classroom style teaching, can improve knowledge and attitudes, but these changes don’t seem to result in changes in professional behaviour that benefit patients. Benefits can be achieved through more targeted educational interventions within the clinical setting….
The degree of benefit of educational interventions directed at patients or professionals may appear to be modest – about a 1 point reduction in average pain intensity using a 0-10 pain scale. However, this is similar in magnitude to some pharmacological interventions…
Future research studies are needed to understand how to deliver these educational interventions effectively in daily practice while combining several of them at the same time…
Dr. Mike Bennett is an IAHPC Board member, he resides in England and his biography is at insert. The full report may be found at insert
Palliative Care Book of the Month
OXFORD TEXTBOOK OF PALLIATIVE NURSING 3e.Ferrell and Coyle (Eds)
Very impressive.
Other Book Reviews
PALLIATIVE CARE FOR ADVANCED ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA.Guidelines and Standards for Evidence-Based Care.Martin and Sabbagh (Eds)
Applying interdisciplinary palliative care to the management of dementia.
TELL ME THE TRUTH.Conversations with my patients about life and death.Ranjana Srivastava
A young Melbourne oncologist's stories about clinical problems. Very readable.
CANCER PAIN.From Molecules to Suffering.Paice, Bell, Kalso and Soyannwo (Eds)
Proceedings of a conference about all aspects of cancer pain.
END OF LIFE.The Essential Guide to Caring.Jordan and Kauffmann
Practical advice and support for people who are caring for those approaching the end of their lives.
Dr. Roger Woodruff. Dr. Woodruff is a Lifetime Member of the Board and lives in Australia. His biography may be found at insert
Announcements
The entire text of the following announcements may be found in our website at insert
From the UK: A new end of life care intelligence resource
“The National End of Life Care Intelligence Network (NEoLCIN) aims to improve the collection and analysis of information related to the quality, volume and costs of care provided by the NHS, social services and the third sector, to adults approaching the end of life…”
http://www.endoflifecare-intelligence.org.uk/home.aspx
The first WHO Collaborating Center in Palliative Care in the developing world was established in India
… at the Institute of Palliative Medicine, at the Calicut Medical College in Kerala, India…
From Hungary: ‘Fields of Hope’ – a program for active citizenship in the European Year of Volunteering 2011
In October 2007, the Hungarian Hospice Foundation launched the Fields of Hope Program with the intention of shaping public opinion regarding dying people…
The objective of the “Fields of Hope” program is to attract attention to dying people and “transform attitudes towards suffering at the end of life.”… It uses the daffodil as a symbol, a flower that blooms in the spring and represents one of hope and dignity.
"You're not alone" is the main message of this year's daffodil program. Another question we raise is how much strength and support is given to an incurable patient by professionals - is there someone to rely on who is capable of alleviating their suffering?...
… Brigitta Sándor
Hungarian Hospice Foundation
From the Scientific Literature
NHS Evidence - supportive and palliative care
Dear all,
Each month there is a wide range of new items added to the NHS Evidence specialist collection on supportive and palliative care…
Users who cannot easily access the web links below (not shown in this abbreviated Newsletter version) from their email software should access the full list via the link near the top of the home page: http://www.library.nhs.uk/palliative/ or see the full lists of new records added each month
Best wishes,
Richard Stevens, Project Manager, NHS Evidence - supportive and palliative care
Propoxyphene is withdrawn from the US market due to a risk of cardiac toxicity
It is sold as Darvon, Darvocet, as well as generics
Read the report at the following link:
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/SafetyInformation/SafetyAlertsforHumanMedicalProducts/ucm234389.htm
Webmaster’s Report