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Emily Adam (EA): Could you give an overview of the panel you will be chairing at the Congress in October?

Zhimeng Jia (ZJ): The title of the session is ‘Responding to Conflict-Related Suffering Through Palliative Care.’ The goal of the session is threefold: firstly, we want to help the audience get a better sense of what macro level conflicts are globally that generate palliative care needs; second is to identify some of the resources, materials and skills to meet palliative care needs amidst these conflicts; and third is to engage the scientific and lay community and our international palliative care community to build capacity globally to respond to macro level conflict situations.

EA: Can you tell us more about how the panel came together and what the panelists will bring to the discussion?

ZJ: I finished my research training during COVID, and felt compelled to contribute to our understanding of the role of palliative care during a pandemic. This led to a systematic review examining the perceptions and expectations of inpatient palliative care during COVID. We learnt that palliative care clinicians have the skills and attitudes to propagating compassion across clinical contexts. We also learnt that palliative care clinicians could enhance systemic response to suffering through their presence and nimble leadership. This made me wonder how palliative care skills could be applied beyond clinical interactions. Could we adapt our conflict resolution, communication and leadership skills in other conflict settings, beyond the micro level to the macro level? What elements may or may not be transferable? What lessons can our global health palliative care experts impart from their experiences navigating macro level conflicts?

We will first hear from Professor Eric Krakauer. Professor Krakauer is a staff palliative care physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and served on the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care. He directs the Program of Global Palliative Care within the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has provided training and technical assistance for ministries of health, hospitals, medical schools across low- and middle-income settings to integrate palliative care into health systems. Professor Krakauer will provide us with an overview of macro level conflicts that palliative care has seen. He’ll also give words to the ethical and moral imperatives shaping palliative care’s involvement in macro level conflict.

Dr. Farzana Khan is a palliative care physician from Bangladesh. She leads the Fasiuddin Khan Research Foundation and is the Co-Chair of the Knowledge Mobilization hub at the Usher Institute. She will speak to her personal experiences of being displaced by violence, and how these experiences have informed her approach in building contextually relevant and culturally tailored community palliative care program for refugees.

Dr. Nahla Gafer is a palliative care physician and oncologist from Sudan, who has built regional training in palliative care for Sudanese professionals. She will give voice to building palliative care capacity and resilience among healthcare professionals practicing amidst macro level conflicts.

Finally, Dr. Hammoda Abu-Odah is a PhD trained Nurse-Scientist and Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Abu-Odah began his career as an Emergency Department nurse in the Palestine-Gaza strip. Since then, he has been actively engaged in studying and evaluating palliative care implementation in this conflict-stricken setting. He will speak to intensification of suffering that's brought on by armed conflict and describe the evolving role of palliative care in this context.

EA: Why do we as palliative healthcare providers need to hear about this topic?

ZJ: Palliative care concerns itself with suffering, uncertainty and conflict. Yet, for suffering rooted in macro level conflicts, we may not have the right tools and language to respond. Through lived experiences and wisdom, our panelist will offer language, stories, and approaches to help us begin a dialogue on suffering that simultaneously feels distant and imperceptible.

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