Should it not be?

This was one of the major points discussed during a meeting organized by the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organisations (IFHHRO) in Amsterdam on 20-21 January 2011, with support from the Open Society Foundations.

Taking part were World leaders from Human Rights Organisations:

• Dr Adriaan van Es – President, IFHHRO
• Professor Cees Flinterman – Member, UN Human Rights Committee
• Diederik Lohman – Human Rights Watch

Dr Kathleen Foley & Dr Liliana De Lima in Amsterdam

and from the Pain and Palliative Care field:

• Dr Kathleen Foley – Memorial Sloane Kettering Institute
• Mary Callaway – Open Society Foundations ["Health Care Without the Pain"]
• Dr Liliana De Lima – IAHPC
• Dr Michael Cousins – IASP

How much of access to pain relief and palliative care can be considered a basic right in the developing world? It would be no use bringing in unrealistic norms which cannot be achieved!

The group unanimously agreed that while the degree of care would be dependent on availability of resources, there would be some minimum standards that any country can and should provide. Like immediate release oral morphine.

The group worked on the draft of a declaration, that should take final shape in the next few weeks.

Kathleen M. Foley, MD

The Global Palliative care community rejoices the decision of the International Association for Study of Pain (IASP) that its John D. Loeser Distinguished Lecture Award goes to Dr Kathleen Foley.

Dr Kathleen Foley is an attending neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

In IASP’s words,

the award recognizes work that gives new perspectives to understanding the experiences of pain and that opens the door to future reductions in suffering…

She is professor of Neurology, Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and holds the chair of the Society of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Pain Research. All that is how she is described in IASP’s newsletter. Let us provide our own six-word description of Kathy Foley:

She knows. She understands. She cares!

Congratulations, Kathy, and thank you for all that you are doing for this world.

Watch Dr Foley’s lecture “Pain and Palliative Care: What the Future Holds” given in 2008 at the UCSD Cancer Centre:

“Nationally recognized expert, Kathleen M. Foley, MD, talks about the assessment and treatment of pain in cancer patients, as well as developing policies for pain and palliative care worldwide.”