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Message from the Chair
and Executive Director
Roberto Wenk, MD (Argentina)
Liliana De Lima, MHA (USA)
Dear readers:
We hope that this New Year brings happiness, peace and health to you and your loved ones.
As many of you are aware, we recently completed the election of board members and are proud to announce the following new members to the board for the term Jan 2009- Dec 2011:
James Cleary (USA) is Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine (Hematology Oncology Section) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health; Director Palliative Medicine Service University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics; Program Leader, Cancer Control Program University of Wisconsin Paul P. Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Director UW WHO Collaborating Center for Policy and Communications in Cancer Care in Madison.
Stein Kaasa (Norway) is Professor in Palliative Medicine, Institute of cancer research and molecular medicine, Head of the Palliative Medicine Unit at Trondheim University Hospital and Cancer Director for Norwegian Directorate for Health in Norway.
Florian Strasser (Switzerland) is Associate Professor / Senior Consultant in Oncology & Palliative Medicine, Section Oncology/Hematology in the Department of Internal Medicine and Palliative Care Center at the Cantonal Hospital in St.Gallen, Switzerland.
Pesach Shvartzman (Israel) is Chairman Department of Family Medicine, at Soroka Medical Center, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Head of the Pain Management Clinic – Clalit Health Services-South District in Beer-Sheva, Israel.
We welcome these extraordinary leaders in palliative care to our board and look forward to their participation as directors of this organization.
In addition, two of our current board members were re-elected to the Board:
Carla Ripamonti (Italy) is Director first level of the Division of Pain Therapy and Palliative Care, at the Istituto per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori; Professor of Palliative Care at the Schools of Oncology and Clinical Farmacology at the Universita’ degli studi di Milano. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Research Network of the European Association for Palliative Care; Consultant of the WHO Collaborating Center in Cancer Pain; and Coordinator and Teacher of the National Course of the Associazione Anestesisti Rianimatori Ospedalieri Italiani on cancer pain.
MR Rajagopal (India) is Professor of Pain and Palliative Medicine, SUT Academy of Medical Sciences in Trivandrum; Chairman of Pallium India (a registered charitable trust); Coordinator, of the Task force on Palliative Care and Rehabilitation for the National Cancer Control Program of the Government of India; Member, Post-graduate Board of Medical Studies, Sree Ramachandra Medical Institute in Chennai and Chairman of the Opioid Availability Committee of the Indian Association of Palliative Care.
Both Doctors Ripamonti and Rajagopal have been extremely helpful in supporting IAHPC and our programs. We are very glad that they will continue working with us for the next three years.
In our next edition, we will start featuring profiles of our new board members, with their photos and bios. You can learn more about the current board of directors’ page in www.hospicecare.com/Organisation/#directors
As a service to the global palliative care community, IAHPC has built a new section called Global Palliative Care, that provides information on three of the components of the World Health Organization (WHO) strategy to integrate palliative care into health care systems: Medications; Educational Programs and a Directory of Services on palliative care and hospice providers. The Medications section includes a link to the IAHPC Essential Medicines section and a link to the Pain and Policy Studies Group (PPSG) at the University of Wisconsin where you will find the opioid consumption reports from all countries of the world. We are very grateful to the PPSG for their partnership in this project and for their excellent work in reporting this data. To visit this section, or to add your program to these listings, or to make any comment please click on
www.hospicecare.com/global-palliative-care/.
During the month of December we received many donations from individuals who gave funds to IAHPC in memory of a friend or loved one as a gesture of gratitude for the care that they received from hospice and palliative care providers. These donations are very important to our organization as they are a reflection of how much impact we are really having at the level that matters most, the patients and families.
This edition marks the start of a new year which poses many challenges to organizations such as IAHPC. As we mentioned in a past newsletter, we will keep our commitment to support palliative care in developing countries and to implement cost effective strategies and programs that maximize our ability to help and accomplish our mission.
We appreciate the confidence that all of our donors, members and readers have placed in us and in our work. We will strive to be better each day and look forward to working with you all in 2009.
Many thanks for your encouragement, support, and help.
Sincerely,
Roberto Wenk, MD
Chair, Board of Directors
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director
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