Reflections on My Tenure As An IAHPC Board Member

By Hibah Osman, MD, MPH
IAHPC Board Member, 2019–2025

Sitting down to write this reflection, I am struck by how profoundly the world has transformed in the seven years since my board term began. It started in 2019 with a strategic planning meeting in Berlin. The gathering was alive with the energy of personal connection. Board and staff spent two days engaging in a dynamic exchange of ideas around priorities and strategy, building consensus while also building community. 

Then, the pivot. Travel restrictions and financial constraints shifted everything online almost overnight. In-person meetings became a thing of the past. Much like the patients and families we serve, challenging circumstances forced us to adjust to a new reality and the organization had to adapt. Operations moved entirely online with fewer opportunities for direct engagement. The team at IAHPC demonstrated remarkable resilience, continuing the work and finding creative solutions to every challenge. Back in 2019, we could never have imagined that a fully online strategic planning process involving nine staff and 20 board members across multiple time zones could be conducted efficiently and successfully.

Meanwhile, in parallel to declining funding for palliative care, the outside world grew more complex. Waves of political turmoil, war, and displacement have deepened existing suffering caused by serious illness and created devastating new forms of it. The need for compassion and relief has grown in ways that we had never anticipated and that we could not ignore.

These shifts have made the role of IAHPC more critical. Advocacy for policy change, the development of essential resources, and fostering vital professional connections are needed more than ever to reduce health-related suffering globally. IAHPC has been a steady force in an unstable world: providing stability, evidence, and community is critically important.

The sustainability of this vital network depends on its global community. 

Here’s how you can help:

Expand Our Circle  Consider inviting a few colleagues to become members, perhaps using this draft letter. A broader, more multidisciplinary and geographically diverse membership directly amplifies our advocacy and enriches our shared knowledge.

Become a Monthly Donor  If you are able, establishing a recurring gift provides the predictable funding that is the cornerstone of stability. It would allow the organization to move from reactive survival to proactive growth in advocacy, research, and education. Any amount makes a difference, and you can set it up simply here (ticking "Recurring donation" and "Monthly" as the donation type). 

The IAHPC’s work is indispensable. Ensuring its strength and reach for the years ahead is a responsibility shared by everyone who has benefited from and believe in its mission. Let’s carry it forward, together.

Dr. Hibah Osman is a senior palliative care physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Her work focuses on advocacy and program development in low- and middle-income countries, and adaption of palliative care to local context. She is founder of Balsam, the Lebanese Center for Palliative Care, which is a nongovernmental organization that provides home-based palliative care; she is also  founding director of the Palliative and Supportive Care Program at the American University of Beirut Medical Center’s Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute.