An interview with Justin Sanders, MD, MSc, FAAHPM. Devon Phillips (DP): 2024 marks the 24th biennial McGill International Palliative Care Congress. I believe it’s the longest running PC conference in the world. What makes this Congress so special?
Justin Sanders (JS): For the entirety of its existence starting in 1976, it has had a unique combination of rigorous science and humanities. This Congress has a humanistic focus that captures the humanity that we see in our patients and the humanity that we need to promote in ourselves in order to have this work be sustainable. The Congress started at a time when the field of palliative care was relatively small, and we now have a dedicated group of clinicians and researchers from about 65 countries who see this as a really unique meeting in terms of its international focus and its interdisciplinarity.
DP: What are some of the highlights of this year’s programme?
JS: I’m really excited about the programme, starting with the four plenaries which will address some of the most important issues in the field of palliative care. The first plenary will be with Tompson Highway, a musician, writer, and a public intellectual from the indigenous community in Canada. He will be sharing the stage with a young physician, performing artist and PhD candidate, Ariel Dempsey, who’s doing work at Oxford to explore the notion of uncertainty. Uncertainty is something that we think a lot about in our work.
Both of these plenary speakers bring the performing arts, critical thinking and intellectual rigor to enhance the quality and the depth of their presentations. Ariel specifically uses the circus arts as a visual foil to complement her thinking on the subject of uncertainty. There couldn’t be a better time to think about uncertainty given what we’re facing in the world today -geopolitical, technological, and climactic uncertainty.
In the second plenary, we have two extraordinary clinician scientists addressing equity and palliative care. Kimberly Acquaviva, social worker and scholar from the US, has done a tremendous work highlighting the needs and interventions for people from the LGBTQ+ community affected by serious illness. Naheed Dossani, physician and health justice advocate from Toronto, promotes the needs of the those facing structural vulnerabilities including the unhoused with serious illness. We’re going to learn about equitable care for people affected by serious illness.
Our third plenary explores the theme of grief and loss through the lens of biology and philosophy with noted French biologist, Olivier Hamant, sociologist Tanguy Chatel and Anselme Kananga, a Belgian Nurse Practitioner and the founder of the Palliafamilli network in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Finally, in our fourth plenary session on music and connection, we have music therapist Dan Goldman together with biomedical engineer, Stefanie Blain-Moraes, whose work focuses on the use physiological signal processing techniques and assistive technology to address the needs of non-communicative people and their caregivers. This plenary is an opportunity for us to understand both more about what our colleagues in music therapy do and to also understand at a deeper level, the potential impact of music in connecting us to each other. I’m so excited about this.
DP: I noticed on the program day-long sessions in specific streams, including pediatrics, nursing, community advocacy, psychosocial issues and the clinical master class.
JS: This is another really unique aspect of the Congress – we offer day-long sessions focused on a specific areas. For example, the clinical master class which is organized in collaboration with the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians is always a very popular session for clinicians to remain up to date regarding patient care. This year, we are looking at the topic of existential distress. Clinicians both understand that there’s more and more tools to address existential distress and at the same time, they remain unaware of some of the current best practices in assessing and treating existential distress.
DP: I understand that there is a new addition on the programme this year: the pre-conference day on psychoeducation.
JS: Yes! I’d really like to put a pin on the pre-conference workshop that we’re planning on October 15th. Dr. Susan Block, who’s a leading palliative care physician and psychiatrist in the United States, gave a plenary session at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2023, and she highlighted a major gap in care for people affected by serious illness, which was both our attention to the psychological issues that affect our patients, but also the psychoeducation that should accompany our work. And so, I’m really excited that we will offer a bilingual program (separate English and French streams) in this day-long pre- conference workshop led by experts both in the United States and Canada to dig into these issues. This educational programme will be part of the solution to address the gap that relates both to the sustainability of our work and also our expertise in caring for people with psychological distress.
DP: How do you ensure that the Congress captures the latest research, innovation and thinking in palliative care?
JS: But it starts from this interdisciplinary group of clinicians and scientists from all around the world that gets together to think together about what’s new and important for us to focus on. And we take these ideas, from a large-scale needs assessment, and we bring them to our Scientific Planning Committee who then meets on a continuous basis to hone the ideas down into a programme. We also rely on a peer-reviewed abstract review process with about 75 reviewers to select the best research to build our programme.
DP: As the Congress Chair, what message do you have for those who are considering coming to this Congress in October?
JS: If people talk to people who have attended this Congress before, they will hear that this Congress is truly unique because of the combination of rigorous science and the humanities, the forward thinking-ness, the innovation and ideas, as well as the fantastic opportunities for networking. The 2024 Congress will build upon that tradition and honor it in ways that will be really striking.
DP: Last word?
JS: We welcome those who attend our Congress regularly and encourage people who haven’t been before to come. I would also extend a special welcome to our Francophone colleagues as people will find the bilingual nature of this meeting makes it so special. This is an excellent opportunity to build connection in our work and the Congress has been doing this for almost 50 years.I can’t wait to see everyone!
For more information about the McGill International Palliative Care Congress (MIPCC2024):
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