The Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG) / World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Pain Policy in Palliative Care is excited to announce its collaboration on a pilot program with the African Palliative Care Association (APCA) to train in-country champions to improve patient access to pain medicines. To build on its well-established International Pain Policy Fellowship (IPPF) program, funding has been received from the National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health) to develop an African Pain Policy Fellowship (APPF).
Since 2006, the IPPF has improved opioid availability throughout many low- and middle-income countries. The program has trained and mentored 27 fellows from 21countries. These fellows have been instrumental in effecting change in local and national laws and policies, clinician education, public awareness, advocacy and patient care.
This in-country approach will draw on local knowledge about traditions, beliefs, cultures and political situations and how they might affect the availability of needed medications and palliative care. Five individuals have been awarded a 1-year fellowship to receive the training and skills to make positive change in their country’s opioid availability. Training will occur through an initial in-person workshop in Africa and by utilizing distance learning. Fellows will develop action plans to improve opioid availability that they will implement during the one year period and will receive guidance and technical assistance from the PPSG, APCA, and other selected international experts.
This 2014 African class involves five Fellows from five countries. Those selected are:
- ETHIOPIA - Abraham Endeshaw Mengistu, MPH, MD
- GHANA - Mawuli Gyakobo, BSc, MB, ChB, MSc, PhD, FWACP-Fam. Med, Post Doc. Global Health & Palliative Medicine
- RWANDA - Christian Ntizimira, MD
- SUDAN - Nahla Gafer, MD
- ZAMBIA - Lewis Banda, MBChB (UNZA), MMED (UNZA)(internal medicine), FCRADONC (SA)(fellow college of radiation oncology)
We look forward to this collaboration with APCA and are grateful to the National Cancer Institute Center for Global Health for this supplemental grant to the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center as part of its Pilot Collaborations with LMICs in Global Cancer Research or Health Research at NCI-Designated Cancer Centers.