2021; Volume 22, No 9, September

Membership by Degree

By Genevieve Napier
IAHPC Senior Operations Officer

For the past several months, we have been building a picture of our membership: by age, occupation, region, and country. This month, we bring you a breakdown of members’ academic credentials.

This breakdown analyzes our individual membership, which accounts for 89% of our members. It excludes our institutional members, which account for 11%. Percentages are based on membership as of August 31, 2021.

Members’ Impact

Rachel Coghlan was published twice in August. She is lead author of an editorial, “Inequities of Palliative Care Availability and Access to Opioids in Low- and Middle-Income Countries,” published in Palliative Medicine; and “Broaden the Narrative this World Humanitarian Day: Honour those who comfort the dying” was published in the correspondence section of the Lancet.

The editorial cites studies and statistics that reveal inequities in palliative care between high-income countries and low- or middle-income countries, and the importance of reducing these inequities, particularly given future needs. In the Lancet submission, she describes palliative care as “an essential part of pandemic and humanitarian response,” and humanitarian workers as worthy of being celebrated for helping to “sustain communities through this pandemic and keep spirits alive.”

A case report by lead author Chamath Fernando​ was published in the Indian Palliative Care Journal in August. “A Typical Perplexing Life-Sustaining Therapy Decision at the End of Life: A case report from Sri Lanka with attributes potentially worth adopting from the UK legislature follows a young man’s journey from a diagnosis of metastatic osteosarcoma to his death. He explicitly, verbally expressed the wish for care that did not involve life-sustaining measures, but was resuscitated regardless. The report suggests that adopting advance-care planning methods used in the UK would benefit both patients and clinicians.

Gary Rodin, MD, teamed up with Sarah Hales, MD, to write Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully: An Evidence-Based Intervention for Cancer Patients and Caregivers, published by Oxford University Press in April. The book provides “the empirical research, theoretical underpinnings, and clinical application” of CALM, described as a novel supportive-expressive psychotherapy for those living with cancer. The practice of CALM is currently in use in 15 countries, according to Dr. Rodin, who is the Joint University of Toronto/University Health Network Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Head of the Department of Supportive Care at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Dr. Nahla Gafer, author of this month’s featured story, published an article titled “Prevalence of Life-Limiting and Life-Threatening Illness and Associated Palliative Care Needs Among Hospital Inpatients in Sudan” in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. The article describes results of a study that investigated the need for palliative care among adult inpatients at five hospitals in Sudan.

Dr. Nahla Gafer is a member of the IAHPC Board of Directors. You can read her bio in the IAHPC website.


If you have a recently published article or other notable achievement that you wish to share with your IAHPC colleagues, please contact Genevieve Napier.

Members in This Month’s Newsletter

The IAHPC leadership would like to thank the many members who participated in stories and columns in this month’s newsletter.

Policy & Advocacy
News from our Partners
Featured Story
Meet Our Members
Members’ Impact

Links to IAHPC programs mentioned above: Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition, COVID-19 Briefing Notes and Global Palliative Care Database.

List of Members

A list of individuals who joined, or renewed their membership with, IAHPC during the past month.

Membership renewals
Name Country
Family Health Care Association - Mary Potter Palliative Care Center (Korca Palliative Care Center) Albania
Leanne Gunn Australia
Claudia Burla Brazil
Lorea Chilton Canada
Diane A. Dykeman-Sabado Dominican Republic
Hospice La Cima El Salvador
Vivienne T. Mitchel Guyana
Avinash Kumar Tiwari India
Varghese Abraham India
Dingle Spence Jamaica
Richard Lim Malaysia
Bernardo Villa Mexico
Nubia Olivares Nicaragua
Rwanda Palliative Care and Hospice Organisation (RPCHO) Rwanda
Hanneke (Johanna) Lubbe South Africa
Mitchell Robert Scott South Africa
Chitra Weerakkody Sri Lanka
Palliative Care Association of Uganda (PCAU) Uganda
Kennedy Nkhoma United Kingdom
Patrick Coyne United States
Regina Susana Okhuysen-Cawley United States
New members
Name Country
Santiago Otalvaro Zapata Colombia
Camila Hoyos-Banchon Germany
Ashok Kumar Gupta India
Wasimul Hoda India
OBANI MA. MELVIA CON Philippines
Sociedad Espanola de Cuidados Paliativos (SECPAL) Spain
Cihan Alp Turkey
International Neuropalliative Care Society United States

See the full list of IAHPC members

Do you have any questions regarding membership issues?

Contact Ms. Genevieve Napier

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