Message from the Chair and Executive Director
Kathy Foley, MD
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Dear readers:
We are pleased to announce that IAHPC has established a collaboration agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) Cancer Control Program to work in three important areas: participating in the cancer advisory group; furthering the development of educational programs in palliative care and reviewing the WHO Essential Drugs List for palliative care medications. We think this is a great opportunity to capitalize on the expertise of IAHPC and find ways in which we can collaborate together with WHO to promote and develop palliative care around the world.
There are several reasons for the lack of access to palliative care, some of which are due to inadequate health care policies in developing countries. Recently, the World Health Assembly (WHA) met in Geneva and approved a new resolution for the WHO Cancer Control Program which includes palliative care and pain relief as important components of the program. This is a crucial decision by the WHA and should serve as a tool to request changes in policies at the national level so that palliative care is incorporated in the mainstream of cancer care. The press release from WHO announcing the decisions adopted by the WHA in Geneva is available in the WHO website at
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr_wha05/en/index.html
The new Resolution for the Cancer Control Program is available in http://www.hospicecare.com/who/cpc.pdf
We invite you to use this announcement and document to bring attention to the new resolution and push the palliative care agenda in your countries through your Ministries of Health, Cancer Institutes, National Cancer Control Programs and Universities.
As we mentioned in past newsletters, last year we established a Faculty Development Program with Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in India under the supervision of Dr. MR Rajagopal, one of our Board members. The program pays for the salary of Dr. Gayatri Palat, who is now teaching palliative care full time for graduate students. This month, in partnership with the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston , we will be sponsoring Dr. Palat to visit the Department of Palliative Care as an IAHPC Traveling Scholar for one month. We are very glad to be able to sponsor her trip and in partnering with the MDACC to further the development of the program in Amrita.
We are also glad to announce that Dr. Derek Doyle's acceptance speech of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) Lifetime Achievement Award is now available in the AAHPM website at
http://www.aahpm.org/membership/drdoyle.html
Dr. Doyle is one of the founders of IAHPC and a great leader for us. We invite you to listen, hear and reflect on his wonderful words. We are honored and proud to have him as part of our team.
Many thanks to Purdue Fund and especially Ms Pamela Bennett, Executive Director of Advocacy, for its recent donation to IAHPC. We are very grateful for this donation and their support to our educational programs which will enable IAHPC to continue providing support to programs and individuals in developing countries. We hope that this will motivate other foundations and corporations to support IAHPC and the promotion of adequate care to patients with advanced and incurable diseases.
Until next month,
Kathy Foley, MD
Chair, Board of Directors |
Liliana De Lima, MHA
Executive Director |
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© 2005 IAHPC Press
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