Organized in connection with World Hospice and Palliative Care Day as a unified day of action to highlight the international hospice and palliative care movements, the event raised awareness and understanding toward the various medical, social, practical and spiritual needs of people living with a life-limiting illness and their families around the globe.
In front of a live audience of more than 50 people and via Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN) videoconference to eleven further Canadian sites, Dr. Kathryn Downer, National Director of Pallium Canada, provided an overview on educational activities around the globe, traced the history of the Canadian Pallium Project and discussed the revitalization and expansion of the organization’s highly successful Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative and End-of-Life Care (LEAP) courseware for healthcare professionals currently under way.
Liliana De Lima, Executive Director of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) dedicated her keynote presentation toward the role of international organizations – such as the IAHPC – on advancing hospice and palliative care worldwide.
A native of Columbia, Ms. De Lima currently serves as the Executive Director of the IAHPC located in Houston, Texas. A Psychology graduate, she completed a Fellowship in Policy Studies with the Pain and Policy Studies Group/WHO Collaborating Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and was appointed Liaison in Supportive Care for Latin America and the Caribbean by the Pan American Health Organization in 1998. She has been a Consultant to several World Health Organization (WHO) Committees, including the Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines. In 2007, she coordinated the development of the IAHPC List of Essential Medicines for Palliative Care.
Featuring the essential medicines concept, the distinguished speaker painted a vivid picture of access, prescribing and dispensing issues toward opioids around the globe and highlighted the IAHPC Opioid Essential Prescription Package/the IAHPC Opioid Price Watch Project. Alongside an Atlas of Palliative Care in Latin America, IAHPC has also released a listing of Essential Practices in Palliative Care so that the 2013 World Hospice and Palliative Care Day Special Lecture was able to bring the theme of the Day ‘Achieving Universal Coverage of Palliative Care: Dispelling the Myths’ to full circle.
The Special Lecture, moderated by Dr. Peter Lawlor of the Bruyère Research Institute, will be available as a free podcast via OTN shortly. For access, please click here.
A previous ehospice interview with Liliana De Lima, conducted by Vanessa Sherry of the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association at the 19th International Congress on Palliative Care in Montreal, can be accessed here.
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