21^st International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care,14-16 February 2014

 

21^st International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care will be held at KIMS, Kusabhadra Campus, KIIT Bhubaneswar from 14 to 16 2012.

Theme: Evidence Based Palliative Medicine

Early bird registration is available till 31^st May 2013. Please follow this link for details

 

IAPCCON 2013 concluded with the participation of more than 500 delegates

 

The three day conference with the theme Challenges in Palliative Care was concluded on the 10th February 2013 at NIMHANS convention centre, Bangalore.

More than 500 delegates participated in the 20th International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care held at Bangalore from 8 to 10 February 2013.

Scientific sessions began on 8th Febrruary 2013 at 09.30 am at NIMHANS converntion centre. Before the opening session, Dr. S. N. Simha, president and Dr. Anil Paleri, Secreary of IAPC jointly with members of organizing committee welcomed the delegates.

The scientific sessions opened with plenary on Ten Most Important Developments by  Dr. Stephen R Connor followed by Narrative Stories in Palliative Care by Mr David Oliviere. There were three parallel scientific sessions including a symposium and free paper session.

Official inaugural function was held at 06.00 PM. Dr. M.Vijaya Kumar, Director of KIDWAI Memorial Institute of Oncology inaugurated the conference. Dr. S. N. Simha, President, IAPC, Dr. Anil Paleri, Secretary, IAPC, Dr. K. B. Linge Gowda, Organising Secretary, Dr. Remamani P V, Chairperson, Scientific Committee and Dr. Saraswathi Devi, Organising Co- Chairperson were also present.

On day 2, the Ist Plenary was on 25 Years of Palliative Care- Challenges and Barriers followed by 2nd plenary on Hospice and Palliative Care- Future 25 Years. A symposium on Pediatric Palliative Care and Round Table on Opioid Availability were also held along with other sessions.

Debate Competetion on ' Should Palliative Care be a Charity' was held on 3rd day and Prizes for winners of Oral and poster presentations and Debate were distributed in the valedictory function.

More than 70 International and National Faculty and above 500 delegates from India and aborad participated in the conference which provided an opportunity to share scientific knowledge and experience in palliative care

 

IAPC to promote research in Palliative Care : Proposal in the 19th International Conference

The 19th International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) has decided to promote research in palliative care as it is the need of the hour to deliver better quality Palliative Care. A task group will be leading development of this activity. Promoting palliative care education and working towards developing a national palliative care policy are identified as other important tasks. The three day conference from 10 to 12 February 2012 was inaugurated by prof. (Dr). Susanta Kumar Bandyopadyay, Director of Medical Education, West Bengal on the first day at Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership, Salt Lake City, Kolkata.

Dr.Chinthamani Ghosh, Drugs Controller of West Bengal was the guest of honor. Dr. S. N. Simha , President IAPC presided over the function. Dr. Anil Kumar Paleri, Secretary ,IAPC, Dr. Bidhu K Mohanti, Chairman , Scientific Committee, Dr. Arundhati Chakraborty, Organising Secretary, Dr. Shyamal Kumar Sarkar, Organising Committee Member spoke .

More than 400 delegates and 63 faculties from different countries participated. Scientific Session was based on the theme topics Education , Training and Research in Palliative Care. The film Life Before Death was screened on the second day of the conference.

 

 

18th International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care

 

 

Theme "Networking in Palliative Care"

 

18th International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care concluded with the declaration to influence the government of India to frame a National Level Policy. The declaration also pledged to work for making the availability of morphine in all states in India as the effective and essential step to reduce the sufferings and pain of millions affected with diseases in the country.

The conference was held at Shruthi Auditorium , Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences , Lucknow from 11 to 13 February 2011. Nearly 300 delegates and faculty from different countries participated. The theme of the conference was "Networking in Palliative Care". As the theme denotes, different networking experiences in Palliative Care were shared in the conference .

The conference was officially inaugurated by Mr. M. K. Gupta IAS, Excise Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh in a ceremony held in the evening of the first day of the conference. Mr. Gupta in his inaugural speech offered full support of his department in making oral morphine available in the state.

Mementoes were presented to honor eminent personalities . Dr. M. R Rajagopal , Chair man ,Pallium India, Trivandrum, Dr. Shushma Bhatnagar, Chairperson , Scientific Committee , IAPCON Lucknow , Dr. Anil Agarwal Prof. Anesthesiology SGPGIMS, Lucknow, American Cancer Society USA, Mr. Deepak Agarwal , STO, State Excise Department UP , and Principals of Ryan International Schools Ms. Sonika Sharma and Mr. R D' Souza received awards .

Dr. S. N. Simha , President of IAPC and Dr. Anil Kumar Paleri, Secretary, IAPC were present. Cultural programme was staged after the inaugural ceremony. Bruce Davis Gold Medal in Palliative Medicine – 2010 was presented to the winner Dr. Kapil Sankar from Kerala in the function.

The Debate on Euthanasia, the annual general body meeting of IAPC and a presentation by Jeevdaya Foundation were held in the second day along with scientific sessions.

In the closing ceremony held in the afternoon of the third day Dr. Anil Kumar Paleri, Secretary of IAPC read out the palliative care declaration.

"Networking" How beneficial will it be for Palliative Care?

A tweet on the 18th International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care on 12th February attracted a group in a far away country and they re tweeted within hours! "Wish we were there" was the comment by the International NGO- IMAXI- started by patient's living with HIV, TB and a couple of IT Wizards in South Africa. Its members are from four continents working with a mission to maximize access and increase civil society involvement in public health issues through the innovative use of new i-tools. "A conference in Lucknow in India attracted like minded people working with similar vision in different continents within hours, through an easy tool, and that is the power of the social media tools" said Mr. Gopinath Parayil , social entrepreneur and one of the founders of "niti consulting- sustainable development solutions ,Bangalore,India" in his speech in the conference on "Social Media Tools for effective networking" . His talk inspired participants to experiment the networking technology for palliative care. The session concluded with a call to explore adopting social media as one of the tools to network amongst peers and share knowledge to bridge islands of excellence. The session also suggested exploring possibilities of a collaborative wikie in Palliative Care. The Conference discussed various networking strategies for Palliative Care.

The presentations vary from networking with local people and government agencies to support an isolated HIV patient in one of the rural villages in Thrissur district of Kerala to networking of palliative care at the corporate level – an experience from Bangalore.

The success story of Neighborhood Network in Palliative care in Kerala, experience of networking with other groups to build the hospice attached with Christian Medical College Vellore, Organisational networking in Palliative care -experience of World wide palliative care Alliance (WPCA) were a few among the networking experiences shared in the conference.

Winners:

Congratulations to all those participated in different sessions of the conference. The winners are

Debate:

Topic- Pro: "Euthanasia is humane Care in face of suffering". Con: Euthanasia is ethically unacceptable in a civilized Society".

Ist    :   Dr. Joris Gielen (Belgium) and Dr. R. Dowla
IInd  :   Dr. Prakash Chowdhary (New Delhi) and Dr. Poonam Bhagai ( Cankids, New Delhi)

Poster Presentation

Ist       Ms. Meena Kumari (PPCS, Kozhikode)
IInd     Dr. Sangeeta Singh (NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur) and Dr. Sonali Kulkarni (Cipla Palliave Care and Training Centre, Pune)
IIIrd     Dr. Shoba Nair, St. Jhons Medical College , Bangalore & Mrs. Madhura Bhatwatekar ( Cipla Palliative Care and Training Centre , Pune)

Paper :

Ist       Ms. Shyni M ( PPCS, Kozhikode) and Dr. Gaurav Prakash (AIIMS, New Delhi)
IInd     Dr. Moihra Linge and Ms. Anokha Susan Roy (AIIMS, New Delhi)
IIIrd     Dr. Ambika Rajwanashi (Can Support, New Delhi)

Log on to http://www.jpalliativecare.com/(current issue) for Papers

Details of papers presented at the 18th International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care are available from http://www.jpalliativecare.com

Declaration ( Click here to down load declaration)

The conference concluded with a declaration aimed at influencing the government of India to frame a National Palliative Care Policy. The declaration also called upon the government of India to take necessary steps for making the availability of morphine in all states.

Moving towards a National Policy on Palliative and End of Life Care

The conference has decided to work for a National level policy on Palliative and End of life care. Dr. Stanely C Macaden , sought the attention of the conference in this regard . The general body of IAPC held on 12 February 2011 at Lucknow decided to work to achieve this goal.

IAPC to Follow up MCI directive on MD in Palliative Medicine

The general body of Indian Association of Palliative Care has decided to follow up on the MCI directive recognising MD in Palliative Medicine. A committee was formed to follow up further on this issue and also been entrusted to develop a draft curriculum for MD in Palliative Medicine, in India.

Pre- Conference Workshop

The pre conference workshop with two parallel sessions was held on 10 Feb 2011 at Chhatrapati Shahuji Medical University, UP, Lucknow. The work shop was inaugurated by Prof. Saroj Chooramani Gopal , Vicechancellor of the university.

The session on "Research and Communications is the key of networking" was lead by Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar, Head of the Department , Department of Anaesthesiology , AIIMS, New Delhi and Dr. Rajashree Suresh of Pain and Palliative Care Soceity , Kozhikode , Kerala lead the workshop on Communication skills.

Cultural Programmes

Students of Kendriya Vidyalaya SGPGIMS Campus prepared posters and slogans on Palliative care and took out a rally at 11:30 am from "Shruthi Auditorium" on the first day of the Conference.

In the afternoon of second day, a rally was organized by Helpage India, Palliative Care Partnership UK and Cancer Aid Society taken out by Auto Drivers at Charbagh It was coordinated by Mr. AK Singh of Helpage India and Mr. Nicholas of Palliative Care Partnership UK.

IAPCON 2009

The 16th International conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care was held at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi from 13th to 15th February 2009. 600 delegates including 52 from foreign countries participated in the conference. Nearly half of the participants were Volunteers working with palliative care services. This annual event brings together doctors, volunteers, nurses, social workers, counselors, researchers and others working in the field of palliative care from all over the globe. The conference provided a platform for delegates to share their views and experiences and to peruse their practices with a new out look and also contribute to the palliative care development in the country.

The theme of the conference was "freedom from pain" and the objective was to improve knowledge base and clinical skills in addressing the issues of pain in cancer and HIV/AIDS patients. The scientific content of this conference focused on how to incorporate the principles of Pain Management in Palliative Care. This gave an opportunity for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals to have a good overview of these issues and pertinent subjects.

The three day conference was divided into parallel sessions. Experts from different countries presented papers on important topics. 21 sessions were held with a pre conference cadaveric workshop in Interventional Pain Management techniques for cancer patients on 12th February.

A total of 56 invited lectures were taken by world renowned faculty and 135 free papers covering a spectrum of topics that represent the truly multi disciplinary nature of the field. The lecture topics included various aspects of pain management, paediatric palliative care and recent advances. All the lectures and abstracts were compiled and edited in a separate Manuscript book "Freedom from Pain.

The activities of Project Kiran was showcased in a session held on 14th February. Its relevance, various components, achievements were discussed at this well attended session.

At the inaugural function, Dr. Karan Singh Yadav eminent cardiothoracic surgeon and Member of Parliament was the chief guest and Dr. Surinder Singh, Drugs Controller General of India was the Guest of Honour. Dr. Cecilia Sepulveda, Head of Cancer Division, WHO, Geneva gave the oration. At the function Dr. Sepulveda and Ms. Gilly Burn, Founder Director, Cancer relief India were presented mementoes in recognition of their contribution to the development of palliative care in India. Dr. Mrs. V M Devakar, the iconic anaesthesiologist and Dr. G K Rath, Director, BRAIRCH also graced the function. Earlier Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar, Organising Secretary of the conference welcomed the guests and delegates. Prof. Sukdev Nayak, President, IAPC presided over the function and Dr. Anil Kumar Paleri, Hon. Secretary, IAPC delivered vote of thanks.

A work shop for National faculty, review meeting of the IAPC Certificate Course, IAPC Central Council meeting, Annual General Body Meeting of Indian Association of Palliative Care for the year 2009 was also held during these days at different venues at AIIMS. Cultural progrmmes were also arranged as part of the conference which was a mix of traditional and classical art forms from across the country, many performed by delegates.