From the President’s Desk

Hello Friends,

Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar

We, at the IAPC, are excited to participate and celebrate the upcoming World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) observance on Saturday, 14th October 2023. In line with this, I am excited to invite palliative care institutions from across the country to share and showcase their WHPCD Celebrations to the world, by publishing details of their celebrations on the IAPC’s National Portal. Further details regarding this is available in the ‘Announcements / Messages from IAPC’ section of this newsletter.

The IAPC also believes that one of the ways to observe this year’s WHPCD theme ‘Compassionate Communities: Together for Palliative Care’ is to facilitate the creation and strengthening of compassionate communities. The IAPC has therefore announced the November 2023 batch of the IAPC’s ‘Certificate Course in Palliative Care for Volunteers’, as a step towards creating compassionate communities across the country. I encourage you to invite your friends and colleagues to apply for this course and as a first steps towards creating compassionate communities.

The ‘Education and Training’ section of this newsletter, also houses information about the training and advocacy activities conducted over the past month by palliative care institutions from across India. The section will also provide you with details of courses in palliative medicine / care that are currently inviting applications, including that of the ‘IAPC’s Certificate Course in the Physiotherapy – Palliative Care interface’. Congratulations to all those who work tirelessly to make each of the programs a huge success.

I am hopeful that you will continue to enjoy the October 2023 edition of the IAPC’s infographic. The infographic of this month, ‘General Myths about Palliative Care – Part 3’ focuses on myths related to End-of-life care and Morphine. I urge you to share the IAPC’s infographics published till date, within your networks to promote and raise awareness about palliative care.

I am also excited to share a few important announcements regarding IAPCON 2024. Complete details about the below updates are available in the ‘Announcements / Messages from IAPC’ section of this newsletter.

  • The ‘Dr M T Bhatia Award for Best Poster Presentation for Nurses’ has been announced for those nurses presenting their original research work at IAPCON 2024.
  • Registrations are open for the 9 pre-conference workshops at IAPCON 2024.
  • The deadline to submit abstracts for IAPCON 2024 is Thursday, 30th November 2023.

On behalf of IAPC, I congratulate Dr Raghavendra Ramanjulu (Editor-in-Chief, Indian Journal of Palliative Care) and the editorial team for bringing out yet another brilliant issue of the journal. Please click here to read the same.

It is with pleasure I present to you the IAPC’s exclusive articles for this month. My sincere gratitude and congratulations to our contributors.

With great enthusiasm and pride, I invite you to read the ‘Awards and Recognitions’ section of the newsletter to appreciate and celebrate the achievements and milestones of our friends and colleagues. Congratulations to each of them for their accomplishments! 

I would like to leave you all with an invitation for the October edition of ‘Singing of Stars’, a real evening of harmonies. Join us at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 26th October, 2023, to unwind and relax with Mr Ashwin Prabhu’s soulful renditions of popular songs. Details to join the program is available in the ‘Announcements / Messages from IAPC’ section of this newsletter. Thank you, Team SMA Nirvana for your unwavering support towards this initiative.

With warm regards,

Dr. Sushma Bhatnagar
President, IAPC