Announcements / Messages from IAPC

Update: The Supreme Court of India set to ease the process for Advance Medical Directives (Living Will) and withdrawal of life support treatment

A Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court headed by Justice K M Joseph is set to pass orders making suitable amendments to the previous procedure regarding making an advance medical directive and withholding and withdrawing of life support treatment. These landmark directions from the Court will make things much more doable.

As we await the detailed orders, the highlights are that an advance medical directive may be made in front of a Notary or a Gazetted Officer. And for withdrawing life support, two committees need to be constituted by the hospital where the patient is admitted. Unlike in the previous judgement, there is no need for prior permission of the Magistrate on a routine basis.

We are grateful to Senior Advocate Arvind Datar and Advocate Dr. Dhvani Mehta for their dedicated services over many years, totally pro bono, and to the End of Life Care India Taskforce (ELICIT) steering group (a collaborative of the Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine, the Indian Academy of Neurology, and the Indian Association of Palliative Care) represented respectively by Drs. R K Mani, Roop Gursahani and Nagesh Simha, for pursuing this relentlessly over more than seven years. We also acknowledge gratefully, the initial work, also pro bono, done by DSK Legal, especially Late Advocate Girish Gokhale, Advocate Nirav Shah and Advocate Nausher Kohli.

A detailed article will be published in the next issue.

Update: IAPC’s upcoming AGBM

The IAPC invites all members to kindly join us in-person for the IAPC’s upcoming Annual General Body Meeting (AGBM) scheduled to be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday, 11th February, 2023, in Bengaluru.

As always, it has been decided that the AGBM will be held on the second day of the Annual International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care. The AGBM this year will therefore be an in-person meeting held at the conference venue (IAPCON2023), the Nimhans Convention Center, in Bengaluru.

Please note below the agenda for the AGBM.    

  • Welcome
  • Presentation of the Minutes of the previous last AGBM / CC meeting
  • Update: IAPC’s Activities
  • Presentation of the IAPC’s Financial Statements
  • Update: Indian Journal of Palliative Care
  • Update: Academy of Palliative Medicine (APM)
  • Update: ELNEC
  • Approval of new State Chapters
  • Thanks to Cipla Foundation
  • Election results: Secretary General, APM; and CC member (West Zone)
  • IAPCON 2025: Venue Announcement

Register for IAPCON 2023, It’s just around the corner!

The organising committee of the 30th Annual International Conference of the Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPCON 2023) is excited to meet you in Bengaluru.

IAPCON 2023 is a physical conference that will be organised at the Nimhans Convention Center, Bengaluru, and is organised by Karunashraya. The main conference is scheduled to be conducted over two and half days (Friday, 10th February 2023, to Sunday, 12th February 2023) with six major tracks and three minor tracks. Pre-conference workshops are scheduled for Thursday, 9th February, 2023.

The conference is themed ‘Metamorphosis: The emergence of Subspeciality Palliative Medicine’.

Dr Seema Rao, the Organising Secretary of IAPCON 2023 shares, “Experts from different medical specialities will be deliberating on improving the quality of life of patients with chronic diseases at the 30th Annual International Conference of Indian Association of Palliative Care, IAPCON 2023. Register now for IAPCON 2023 to be a part of these interesting discussions.”

Dr Naveen Salins, Chair, Scientific Committee, IAPCON 2023, shares, “I welcome you to experience a unique conference as this conference transcends the norms of the previous conferences. This conference will focus on exploring the integration of palliative care with different specialties like Cardiology, Pulmonology, Nephrology, ICU, Oncology, and Neurology. Several eminent speakers from all over the world will be presenting riveting lectures on unique topics during the conference.”

“This year, it is an attempt to look at subspeciality palliative medicine. It is the first time that we are reaching out to other specialities to showcase how palliative care can influence good patient care in non-oncology areas, as also how others can help us in our work. This will certainly be a game changer” says, Dr Nagesh Simha, Organising Chairman, IAPCON 2023, while sharing his thoughts on the upcoming conference. Please click here to read his complete interview.  

The conference organisers go on to share that delegates attending the full three day conference will have 5 credit hours accredited and that participants attending even the pre conference workshops will have an additional 2 credit hours accredited by the Karnataka Medical Council. Please note that spot registrations will not be eligible for credit points. 

Please visit the conference website for further details and to register for IAPCON 2023

The IAPC publishes a list of ‘Suggested Reading Material in Palliative Medicine / Palliative Care’

The IAPC celebrated the ‘International Day of Education’, by publishing a list of suggested / recommended readings in palliative medicine / care.

With this initiative, the IAPC attempts to:

a) Provide pointers and empower the different cadres of palliative care professionals, to further improve the provisioning of quality palliative care to our patients and their families.

b) Hopes that our community finds this resource helpful to not only update their knowledge but also make available these resources in their Institutional Libraries / Departments.

The IAPC takes this opportunity to acknowledge and thank Dr Naveen Salins (Professor and Head, Department of Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care; Coordinator, Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre; Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal) and Dr Pankaj Singhai (Assistant Professor, Department of Palliative & Supportive Medicine, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Medical Sciences, Indore) for sharing their expertise and for their support towards populating this list.

Please click here to access this resource.

Leverage the IAPC’s Social Media to stay connected!

The IAPC is inviting each of you to join the IAPC’s Social Media community to network and stay connected with the palliative care community, from India and beyond!

To get started, Follow / Like us on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palliativecare.in

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iapc-1994/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/iapcsecretary

Join us for the IAPC and SMA-Nirvana’s ‘Singing for the Stars’: National, Multilingual program at 2:50 p.m. on 24th February, 2023

The IAPC and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy Nirvana (SMA Nirvana) invite you to join us for a national multilingual edition of ‘Singing for the Stars’, scheduled at 2:50 p.m. on Friday, 24th February, 2023.

The evening of harmonies will be presented by Ms Dhawani Gokulgandhi (Singer, Voiceover Artist and a Music educator).

Don’t forget to mark your calendars and tune in at 2:50 p.m. on 24th February, 2023, to relax and unwind with music.

Update from the January event

The IAPC and the SMA’s program for the month was a regional special edition dedicated to all our friends from South India. This special edition of ‘Singing for the Stars’ was presented jointly by Mr Anirudh Iyer (Vocalist, Performing Artist, Musician and Educator) and Ms Archana Kamath Hegdekar (Singer, Music Composer, Performing Artist ) via Zoom on Tuesday, 24th January, 2023, at 2:50 p.m. Both artists kept the audience grooving with popular songs from Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi. Thank you, Mr Iyer and Ms Hegdekar, for presenting us with such a fun filled evening of harmony.

We congratulate and thank our guest singers (in alphabetical order) Ms Arpita Sai (11th standard student), Dr Latha (Nurse, Jodhpur), Ms Pallavi (Banker) Ms Radha Choudha (Cancer patient, Nagpur) and Dr Shailesh (Anaesthetist, Kolkata) for their enthusiastic participation.

Please click here to watch a recording of this session.

The IAPC’s Careers page has been updated to reflect new vacancies from across the country

We invite you to visit the IAPC’s ‘View job vacancy’ page to view the recently updated vacancies in palliative care from across the country.

We request you to please also join us to improve the availability and access to palliative care by either sharing the details of vacancies at your center or by sharing the details of this platform with your colleagues to submit a vacancy from centers rendering palliative care services.

Call for Support: Your 2 minutes = Someone’s entire lifetime of Peace, Comfort and Dignity!

The IAPC requests you to spare just two minutes of your valuable time to submit / update the details of your palliative care services in the IAPC’s National Palliative Care Directory.

Steps to show your support:

  1. Please visit the IAPC’s National Palliative Care Directory and select the State from the drop down menu to check details of your center.
  2. If you need to add / update details of your center, then please visit the Submit/Update details of your PC center page on the IAPC website and submit the relevant details.
  3. After entering the relevant details, please click the ‘Submit’ button to record your responses.

Please do remember that your two minutes will make an invaluable difference in someone’s entire lifetime, as patients and caregivers, along with your colleagues will then have access to palliative care services when they need it the most!

Come on, donate your time to be a bridge in alleviating the suffering of our patients from across the country. Let no one be left behind!

For help please visit https://www.palliativecare.in/help/#Directory

‘Saath Saath Helpline’: India’s free palliative care helpline

Saath-Saath Helpline: 1800-202-7777, is the first of its kind National, Free-of-cost Palliative care helpline. The helpline offers non-judgmental listening services to palliative patients and their caregivers, or to a patient’s physician, and connects them to the nearest palliative care center.

The helpline has 26 partner organisations working across 17 States and Union territories viz; Maharashtra, Delhi, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kashmir and West Bengal. Volunteers from Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) and Cipla Palliative Care and Training Centre (CPC) attend the calls in four shifts to either provide information, offer Psycho-emotional support or to refer the caller to a partner organisation.

The helpline provides service through call-in on a phone line and works 6 days a week (Mon-Sat), 10 am to 6 pm.

You can offer your support by informing patients about this helpline and refer those who are in need of such services.