Webinar on ‘Advance Medical Directives and withdrawal of life support treatment’, on 21st March, 2023
The webinar on ‘Advance Medical Directives and withdrawal of life support treatment’, was presented successfully on Tuesday, 21st March, 2023, between 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.
A record 270 healthcare professionals from India and beyond participated in the interactive webinar.
The stellar panel kept the audience riveted to their seats, as they went about sharing insights into the nuances surrounding End of Life Care (EoLC) decisions. As promised, the webinar facilitating the understanding of current basis of EoLC decision making in India by:
- Providing guidance to palliative care physicians for assisting individuals in preparing Advance Care Directives in India.
- Enabling physicians to implement advance care directives at the end of life and/or assist families in taking decisions regarding withholding or withdrawing therapy in the absence of advance care directives in accordance with current ethical/legal guidelines.
The 75-minute webinar began with Dr Savita Butola (Hon. Secretary, IAPC) welcoming the audience and introducing the moderator for the day.
The moderator for the webinar, Dr Shivakumar Iyer (Professor, Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College, Pune), set the stage by articulating the objectives and goals of the webinar, and then introducing the expert panel to the audience.
The stellar panel was represented by (in alphabetical order):
- Dr Dhvani Mehta (Co-Founder and Lead – Health, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi)
- Dr Naveen Salins (Professor and Head, Palliative Medicine and Supportive Care, KMC, MAHE, Manipal)
- Dr Raj Kumar Mani (Director, Clinical Services, Pulmonology and Critical Care, Yashoda Super Specialty Hospital, Kaushambi, Ghaziabad)
- Dr Roop Gursahani (Consultant Neurologist, P.D. Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai)
- Dr Srinagesh Simha (Medical Director, Karunashraya, Bengaluru)
Dr Iyer, then went on to ably moderate the very informative and interactive webinar, as he led the discussions by posing questions to each of the panellists.
The webinar addressed issues around how the palliative care community can facilitate the process of appropriate EoLC. The panel then spoke about how to make advance care a standard of care, the legal situation regarding advance directives, the role of palliative care physicians in overcoming the barriers to appropriate EoLC in the hospital, the ICU perspective etc. The webinar culminated with discussions revolving around the way ahead to accelerate the implementation of the recent supreme court verdict to withhold and withdraw therapy.
Dr Savita then summarized the key take aways from the webinar before proposing the Vote of Thanks.
On behalf of the IAPC, Dr Savita mentioned that IAPC will be working alongside the expert panellists to conduct a review to document the experiences of physicians / administrators in implementing these directives, in preparing a FAQ sheet to advocate for increased uptake of these amended guidelines, and work towards developing a short course on communication skills, as that was seen to the major barrier in effective implementation.
The below are a few excerpts from the feedback shared by the participants who attended the webinar.
“Thank you IAPC for doing this and for Initiating these discussions”
“Very well explained. Specially honest and transparent communication”
“Thank you very much for the very informative and exhaustive session”
Please click here to view the recording of the webinar.
Please click here to view the transcript of the webinar.
Please click here to view the discussions in the chat.