In May and June, three sessions will be offered on palliative care in low- and middle-income countries, with surgery and medical imaging to follow later in 2022
Building on the success of 2021, this year’s TeleEcho™ sessions will again offer highly interactive, live virtual tuition to further consolidate the exchange of knowledge and experiences between healthcare professionals throughout the C/Can network of cities.
TeleEcho™ programme to support C/Can cities in improving access to quality palliative care.
The aim of the first programme is to increase the quality and availability of palliative and supportive cancer care services, improve planning and access to cancer pain management and deepen skill sets in an area that is often under-resourced.
Facilitated by international experts, the three sessions, which will be delivered separately in English and Spanish, emphasise knowledge that is practical and immediately useful through the sharing of best practices, case-based learning, collaborative problem solving, and peer-to-peer support.
The first session in English of the palliative care programme, Designing a Palliative Care Development Plan, took place on May 30. This session was delivered in Spanish on June 1 by Paola Ruiz, a specialist in geriatric oncology at Colombia’s Hospital de Caldas, in Manizales. “This session provided a comprehensive interactive discussion of the steps involved,” she explains, adding: “using case studies and highlighting the importance of designing a plan that creates a fertile ground for a holistic provision of palliative care services as part of the cancer care continuum.”
The second session in English, Preparing Guidelines for Managing Cancer Pain, is on June 13. “The capacity to manage pain is a key feature of an effective system for managing cancer, notes session leader Suresh Kumar, the Director of the WHO Collaborating Center in Community Participation in Palliative Care and Long-Term Care, explaining: “The session includes a case study and will explore these factors and help participants to develop a locally appropriate plan to overcome the existing barriers so that the diagnosis, documentation, and management of cancer pain can be ensured.”
This session will be delivered in Spanish on June 15 by Patricia Bonilla, President of the Latin American Association of Palliative Care who advises: “Professionals in Primary Health Care (PHC) with skills in palliative care can offer quality care to patients and relatives who have diseases that cause serious health suffering.” One of the best tools is virtual education developed by experts in the field and adapted to the environments of the country and region and according to local needs, which allows for mass quality education with rapid results that guarantee attention based on needs.
The third and final session, Developing a Virtual Training Programme on Palliative care for Primary Healthcare Professionals, is led by Tania Ximena Pastrana Uruena, Researcher, Department of Palliative Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Germany. This session will be delivered in Spanish on June 29 by Sofia Bunge, a specialist in geriatric oncology and Joint Director of the Argentinean Programme for Palliative Medicine.
Sessions last approximately 90 minutes and consist of an introduction, followed by a short presentation after which a case study is presented, with a peer-to-peer discussion and then a closing and debrief.
C/Can’s two other TeleEcho™ programmes will be on surgery, in September, and on nuclear imaging, in November.
What happened after TeleEcho™ 2021
Last year’s three TeleEcho™ sessions attracted 123 participants from nine cities, with 20 experts delivering 24 sessions, with five partners.
Nursing in Cancer Care: A leadership development programme for nurses in C/Can cities
Follow-up activities:
- How-to Guide on Patient Navigation
- International Conference on Cancer Nursing
- ISNCC membership for participants
Quality Improvement of Pathology Laboratories for Cancer Diagnosis
Follow-up activities
- Creation of a LinkedIn group for networking and discussions
- ASCO membership for participants
Delivering technical assistance on Radiotherapy Technology Procurement and Maintenance to C/Can cities
Follow-up activities
- ESTRO membership for participants
- Training at the Brazilian Congress of Medical Physics
