7th World Research Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care

Scenes from the congress…

Congress participants

Professor Per Sjøgren, Chair of the Scientific Committee and Vice-President of the EAPC, welcomes  1,170 participants from 47 countries to the 7th World Research Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care which is taking pace in Trondheim from 7-9 June 2012.

Early Researcher Award
Winner of the 2012 Early Researcher Award, Dr Lucy Selman, is congratulated by Dr Franco De Conno and Professor Geoffrey Hanks. Dr Selman later presented her research: ‘How do we measure spiritual outcomes? Lessons from exploring the construct of peace in an African setting’. Joint second prize was awarded to Dr Matthew Maddocks for his research in rehabilitation strategies for people with advanced disease and to Dr Stephanie Stiel for her research on the ‘Potential and limitations of qualitative and quantitative assessments in terminally ill and dying ptients’.

Vittorio Ventafridda Memorial Lecture
Professor Eduardo Bruera presented the opening plenary of the congress: ‘The development of a research field over 25 years: most important findings and their impact’ which is this year’s Vittorio Ventafridda Memorial Lecture. Professor Bruera is seen here talking to Professor Irene Higginson (right) and Heidi Blumhuber at the EAPC stand.

Plenary session, Friday 8 June
Dr Gary Rodin was the key note speaker for Friday and delivered the second plenary of the congress on ‘Research on psychological and social factors in palliative care: contributions, controversies and impact on the field’.

Poster presentations
A total of 678 abstracts from 51 countries were submitted of which 476 were presented as posters. Ninety-four abstracts were selected for presentation in free communication sessions. You can read all the congress abstracts in the June 2012 edition of Palliative Medicine.

Coming up…
We’ll be publishing contributions from speakers and participants during the next few days and weeks. Please keep visiting the blog. We’ll also tell you when presentations will be uploaded to the EAPC website, together with a full report and abstracts of the congress.