Volume 23, Number 3: March 2022

One Member’s Story: Winifred Otoo, Ghana

Photo supplied by Winifred Otto. Used with permission.

By Genevieve Napier
IAHPC Senior Operations Officer

As a post-graduate student at the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Winifred Otoo was eligible for a free IAHPC membership. After she graduated in December, she chose to continue her association with the IAHPC by paying for an individual membership.

Winifred shared her journey in palliative care with me.

“My nursing career was built on a strong chronic care foundation, although the issue of which specialty I would love to practice never came easy to me until quite very recently. After over a decade of practice—and accidentally or by default climbing the chronic care academic ladder—I decided to focus on palliative care after I had the opportunity to observe the nursing team of my foster mother, Donna, until her peaceful death at home.

“That experience ignited a strong passion toward palliative care in me; all the lectures and encounters on palliative care and end of life became a reality.

“The heart to accomplish my new-found mission in life led me to a self-sponsored and self-initiated residency in palliative care with the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives. In spite of unsolicited institutional challenges with my residency, the passion of palliating has never left my heart and grace has forged me through it all. I currently work with the Ghana Palliative Care Association as a volunteer and have started working to create a palliative care center in Accra.”

Members’ Impact

Fondazione ANT research team. Photo supplied by Silvia Varani. Used with permission.

Melania Raccichini, Luca Franchini, Silvia Varani, and Raffaella Pannuti, representatives of the Fondazione ANT Italia Onlus (a lifetime institutional member), were four of the seven coauthors of Identifying the Prevalence of Unmet Supportive Care Needs among Family Caregivers of Cancer Patients: an Italian investigation on home palliative care setting, published in the January 9 issue of Supportive Care in Cancer. The data for this research article was collected through a questionnaire given to 251 family caregivers.

Tania Pastrana, IAHPC Research and Academic Advisor, along with fellow IAHPC members Luc Deliens, Vilma Adriana Tripodoro, Diane A. Dykeman-Sabado, Nineth Carolina Baltodano Algaba, and Gabriela Píriz Alvarez were among 19 coauthors of a research article published in the Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública in December 2021. Feasibility of using death certificates for studying place of death in Latin America was conducted by analyzing death certificates and digital data files on deaths of 19 Latin American countries from June 2019 through May 2020.

A letter published in the February issue of Lancet Public Heath, Community-Based Participatory Research in Palliative Care: A social justice imperative, was written by William Rosa and two other authors. He is also a coauthor of “It's Rougher on Me Than It Is on Him”: Family caregiver–generated and prioritized illness concerns while patients undergo cancer treatments, published in JCO Oncology Practice in November 2021.

Kathleen Foley, Eric Krakauer, and Stephen Connor have collaborated on a GeriPal podcast that aired in February. The topic of the episode (#206) is “International Palliative Care.” Topics in the podcast include the needs, necessity, barriers, and models of providing palliative care worldwide.

If you have a recently published article or a 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.

Advocacy and Policy

• Dingle Spence (Jamaica), member since 2009, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition and participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• Karen Cox (Trinidad and Tobago) supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition, and participated in the Global Palliative Care Database pilot and the COVID-19 survey.
• M.R. Rajagopal (India), member since 2008 and lifetime member beginning 2020, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition and participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• William Rosa (United States), member since 2020, participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• Felicia Knaul (United States) has been a lifetime member since 2018.
• Smriti Rana (India), a representative of Pallium India, has been a member since 2017.
• Carlos Centeno (Spain), member since 2016, became a lifetime member in 2017.
• Thomas Sitte (Germany) has been a lifetime member since 2019.
• Hibah Osman (Lebanon), member since 2009, participated in Opioid Price Watch, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition, and participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• Mhoira Leng (Uganda), member since 2009, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition and participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• Hammoda Abu-Odah (Hong Kong, SAR China) has been a member since 2020.

Grants in Action

• Mayank Gupta (India) has been a member since 2017.
• Anu Savio Thelly (India) has been a member since 2014.
• K. Radhakrishna Menon (India) has been a member since 2021.
• Shamali Poojary, MD (India) has been a member since 2018.
• Amit Gupta, MD (India) has been a member since 2019.
• Manjula Bhagavatula (India), member since 2014, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition.
• Sanghamitra Bora, MD (India), member since 2015, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition.
• Shrenik Ostwal, MD (India) has been a member since 2019.

IAHPC News

• Athina Vadalouca (Greece) is a representative of Hellenic Society of Pain Management and Palliative Care, which has been a member since 2019.
• Anastassios Kantianis (Greece) has been a member since 2022.
• Martina Rekatsina (United Kingdom) has been a member since 2022.
• Gulnara Kunirova (Kazakhstan) has been a lifetime member since 2015.

Feature Story

• Marisa Martín-Roselló (Spain) has been a member since 2009.

Members’ Impact

• Winifred Otoo (Ghana) has been a member since 2020.
• Luca Franchini, Raffaella Pannuti, Melania Raccichini, and Silvia Varani (Italy) are representatives of Fondazione ANT, a lifetime institutional member since 2019.
• Luc Deliens (Belgium) has been a member since 2020.
• Vilma Adriana Tripodoro (Argentina), member since 2009, supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition
• Diane A. Dykeman-Sabado (Dominica Republic), member since 2009, became a lifetime member in 2021.
• Nineth Carolina Baltodano Algaba (Nicaragua), member since 2019, translated the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition and participated in the COVID-19 survey.
• Gabriela Píriz Alvarez (Uruguay) supported the Global Consensus-Based Palliative Care Definition and participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes
• William Rosa (United States), member since 2020, participated in the COVID-19 Briefing Notes.
• Kathleen Foley (United States) has been a lifetime member since 2005.
• Eric Krakauer (United States) has been a lifetime member since 2007.

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

List of Members

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

Membership renewals

New members

See the full list of IAHPC members

Do you have any questions regarding membership issues?

Contact Ms. Genevieve Napier

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