October 22-25, 2019
Tbilisi
The 2nd International
Symposium on Palliative Care is organized within the General Assembly of the
World Medical Association (WMA) holding in Tbilisi in October 21-25, 2019.
The symposium aims at promoting
the international standards palliative care in Georgia, developing and
implementing adequate, scientific-based recommendations of the experts in
response to all its challenges - educational, legislative, research and
healthcare.
Despite some success achieved in
palliative care in Georgia since 2000, basic palliative care (adequate
management of pain and other symptoms) is not available in Georgia for a large
number of population, needing it, which is a problem not only from medical, but
from ethical and human rights points of view.
On the one hand, this is due to
the lack of awareness on palliative care, as well as deficiency of vocational
education, and on the other hand, the lack of relevant political will or
incorrect understanding of the importance of palliative care (entirely or its
mentioned components separately) by authorities (decision makers), in charge of
appropriate fields.
These problems are typical to the
countries like Georgia. We have sent invitation letters and tentative schedules
of the symposium to internationally recognized experts of palliative care. TSU
will host such professionals with international recognition, as Fiona
Rawlinson, Julia Downing, Julia Verne, Katalin Muszbek, Stephen R. Connor,
Xavier Gomez Batiste, Robert Twycross, Carlos Centeno, Eduardo Garralda.
The symposium considers three sessions (the
3rd session is a scientific conference with the participation of the delegates
of WMA General Assembly) and 3 round tables.
The materials of this symposium and, most
importantly, the recommendations developed for the Governmental (Parliament of
Georgia, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and Science) and Academic
(Universities) institutions, which will be supported by the WMA General
Assembly, will increase the "political" impact for the decision-making
process, needed for the development and introduction of international standards
palliative care in Georgia.
Organizer of the Symposium
Dimitri Kordzaia
Professor, MD, PhD, ScD
Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Iv.
Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University
President, Georgian National Association
for Palliative Care