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Code : 9345-350052 Created Date : Tuesday, July 14, 2015 Update Date : Tuesday, July 14, 2015 Visit : 1877

14th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care

The report of 14th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care by Dr. Mamak Tahmasebi

Application Code :

306-0115-0077

Created Date : Sunday, May 31, 2015 00:32:03Update Date : Thursday, June 25, 2015 22:10:46
IP Address : 188.245.40.55Submit Date : Thursday, June 25, 2015 22:11:06Email : mamaktahma@yahoo.com

Personal Information

Name :	Mamak
Surname :	Tahmasebi
School/Research center :	School of Medicine
If you choose other, please name your Research center :
Position :	Assistant professor
Tel :	+98-21-61192530

Information of Congress

Title of the Congress :	14th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care
Title of your Abstract :	Communication with Cancer Patients
country :	Denmark
From :	Saturday, May 8, 1915
To :	Monday, May 10, 1915
Abstract(Please copy/paste the abstract send to the congress) :	Communication with Cancer Patients Background: Effective patient-physician communication is at the core of health care, especially for cancer patients. Good communication between physicians and patients establishes trust, improves the patients’ quality of life and additionally it helps patients to make the best decision at critical times of their lives. The importance of communication skills and its education to medical students have been recently acknowledged in medical universities in Iran. Aims: To identify what cancer patients expect from their communication with their oncologists. Methods: Non-structured and experimental medical interview with more than 2000 patients with advanced stage of cancer who were referred to palliative care clinic at Imam Khomeini Hospital. All patients were visited and interviewed by one physician. Results: There is no doubt that communication skills are the essential part of the best quality cancer care. The following list of recommendation for physicians has been generated based on the most frequent requests mentioned by the patients. 1) Talk directly to your patients when they are present rather than their relatives. Most of the times the relatives try to talk on behalf of the patients, as a sign of support. 2) Let the patients talk about themselves; physical problems, emotional feelings, spiritual sufferings and even economic shortcomings. You cannot solve all these problems but only being heard makes the patients feel comfortable. Be a good listener! 3) Explain to the patients if they need and want to know about their disease, their symptoms, the medications' functions and their side effects, you can reduce your patients' anxiety and guarantee their cooperation with improving their knowledge. 4) Examine patients in each visit even if you know there would be nothing new. Comfort your patients and show your attention by touching them gently. 5) If you don't want to tell the whole truth; it would be quite all right, but never lie to the patients. Sooner or later they will find out and will never forgive and trust you even when they come for future visits. 6) Never tell bad news indifferently, while staring at your papers or the wall behind your patient. They do not need you to sympathize with them. Patients need to be understood as a human being not a “case”. 7) Never tell something which makes the patients feel remorse: “if you had come to see me sooner...”, “if you had never smoked...”, “if you had start chemotherapy last month...” Be respectful to their decisions, you don't know everything about your patients' life. Sometimes try to walk in their shoes. 8) Never give the patients a time frame for their living; “you will live for 6 months”. You know that life works in a mysterious way and things happen out of our control. People don't live based on our textbooks' statistics. 9) Let the patients try different things even if we think they are useless. Although evidence-based medicine does not support taking traditional herbs or carrying blessed coins, our goal is to help the patients feel comfortable. If the patients believe in something, it may work for them. 10) Use humor in communication with your patients. It improves your patients’ coping mechanism and mitigates the risk of your burnout. There would always be something funny to laugh about. Strange taste of the hospital soup or cancer itself but at the right time and in the right way. Conclusion: Good communication with the cancer patients is one of the most important skills for oncologists. The oncologists visit the patients in the most stressful, emotional, and dubious time of their life. Communication is a skill that can be learnt and improved day by day. Education of communication skills should be a part of curriculum of medical students and residents of all specialties.
Keywords of your Abstract :	communication, cancer
Acceptance Letter :	http://gsia.tums.ac.ir/images/UserFiles/8021/Forms/306/EAPC 2015 email_1.pdf
The presentation :	Poster
The Cover of Abstract book :	http://gsia.tums.ac.ir/images/UserFiles/8021/Forms/306/EAPC_2015_Abstract_Book_P1.pdf
Published abstract in the abstract book with the related code :	http://gsia.tums.ac.ir/images/UserFiles/8021/Forms/306/EAPC_2015_Abstract_Book_P104.pdf
Where has your abstract been indexed? :	none
If you choose other, please name :

The Congress Reporting Form

How many volunteers were present at the Congress? :	more than 1500
Delegates from which countries presented in the congress? :	from about 60 countries such as: almost all European countries, US, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapour
Were the delegates of any other organizations present in the congress? :	No
If yes, please write the names of the organizations in the box :
What were the responses to your talking points? Were specific questions or concerns raised? :	I presented my poster in Communication with Cancer Patients that appeared a common dilemma in most countries. Giving bad news, talking about prognosis,... and general communication skills are part of most developed medical students curriculum. These communication skills are tough based on cultural verities in different countries.
If you met staff members, please list their full names & positions. :	Ednin Hamzeh: Head of Palliative Care Department in Malaysia Parag Bharadwaj: Editor in Chief, Palliative Care: Research and Treatment
Please inform us if there are any follow up actions we need to talk with the members of the congress :	For improvement of palliative care in Iran, formal invitation of known Palliative Medicine specialists and international collaboration is necessary. Palliative Medicine is relatively new in Iran. Cancer and other life threatening diseases are rapidly increase in following years and improving of quality of life of patients should be one the health system priorities. Being familiar with other countries experiences would be very important.
Your experiences about the travel processes(Providing ticket, accommodation,...) :	Unfortunately registration fee and other costs in European countries are very high and I hope Tehran University help for more international participation of Iranian Physician
Please give a briefing of your own observations and outcomes of the congress: :	While Palliative Medicine is at the beginning in Iran and exclusively limited to cancer patients, major part of the EAPC 2015 was about Palliative Care in patients with dementia, heart failure and Alzheimer. Also some of specialist believe palliative care should be active for victims of war or other natural disasters. Team working is a powerful point of palliative care in developed countries. Physicians, nurses and social workers are the core. They also presented new generation of medications for pain management.

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