6th Annual U.S. Celebration of World Hospice & Palliative Care Day: A Virtual Coming Together

Access to palliative care is a fundamental human right and a critical component of universal health coverage, ensuring the highest attainable standard of health for individuals with serious illness and their caregivers.

This complimentary virtual conference, hosted in the United States, serves as a platform to foster cross-cultural community building and both scientific and experiential wisdom sharing. Multidisciplinary leaders at the forefront of research, policy, and clinical practice will present on diverse topics across the domains of palliative care, including pain and symptom management, psychological and spiritual care, cultural humility and ethics, evidence-based advocacy, care for historically minoritized and marginalized populations, and anthropological perspectives in serious illness.

Highlights of this innovative and impactful two-day event include:

• Specialized breakout sessions featuring experts in traditional and alternative medicine, end-of-life care, surgical palliative care, and pediatric palliative care. 

• A dedicated session will explore patient and caregiver perspectives, offering meaningful insights into their lived experiences.

• The Palliative Story Exchange, an inclusive forum for interprofessional palliative care clinicians to safely share experiences and reflections with peers

• Presentations from palliative care leaders around the world will highlight global progress since the implementation of the 2014 World Health Assembly (WHA) Resolution 67.19 on Palliative Care.

• Interactive discussions with interprofessional and global faculty will focus on the implications of palliative care for patients, families, and communities worldwide—advancing both practice and scholarship.
  

This conference focuses on the care of individuals with serious illness and their caregivers. It is designed for a broad national and international audience of healthcare professionals—including, but not limited to, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, social workers, chaplains, psychiatrists, psychologists, pharmacists, and patient advocates—regardless of specialty or prior experience in palliative care or oncology. We proudly welcome all members of the community to attend at no cost.

To ensure broad accessibility, the program will be delivered virtually via Zoom across two half-day sessions. All times are listed in Eastern Time (ET), U.S.

• Day 1: Monday, October 6 | 8:00 am – 1:20 pm (ET)

• Day 2: Tuesday, October 7 | 12:00 pm – 6:40 pm (ET)

Following the conference, registrants will receive access to an online syllabus featuring select PDF slides from faculty presentations and recorded session videos.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (WHPCD) is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. This annual conference is co-hosted by Memorial Sloan Kettering's Supportive Care Service and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

1. Apply interdisciplinary and interprofessional approaches to address patient and family needs across palliative care domains to improve quality of life and alleviate suffering.
2. Address health disparities in hospice and palliative care with actionable methods to promote social justice.
3. Describe advocacy efforts to expand access to, and quality of, palliative care globally.
4. Describe evidence-based approaches and advances in symptom management, serious illness communication, bereavement, spiritual care, end-of-life care, and advance care planning in adult and pediatric populations.
5. Explore and incorporate culturally appropriate palliative care interventions that are sensitive to individual beliefs, values, and practices across resource settings.
6. Describe spiritual and existential considerations throughout the serious illness trajectory and employ best practices using interdisciplinary and interprofessional models.

This conference is complimentary for all participants; however, registration is required. To register, please click the “Register” tab above to complete your Zoom registration. For any questions regarding registration, contact us at [email protected].

If you are registered for this conference and are no longer able to attend, please email [email protected] to cancel you registration. For additional details on our cancellation terms, please review our Cancellation Policy.

"Industry professionals" are welcome to attend Continuing Medical Education events at MSK for their own educational purposes. View our Registration Policy for Industry Professionals for more information.

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

This course will offer the following credit types:

• AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™
• ABIM MOC Points
• New York State Psychology Contact Hours
• New York State Social Work Contact Hours
• ANCC Nursing Contact Hours

MSK Conference Director

Billy Rosa, PhD, MBE, APRN, FAANP, FPCN, FAAN
Assistant Attending Behavioral Scientist,
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Visiting Research Scholar, University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas and Hemispheric and Global Affairs
2021 Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar
2024 RWJF Harold Amos Scholar

MSK Conference Co-Directors 

Shila Pandey, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, ACHPN  
Nurse Practitioner, Supportive Care Service
APP Education Specialist
APP Professional Development Department

Andrew Epstein, MD, FAAHPM
Associate Attending
Medical Oncology and Supportive Care Services
2017 Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar

MSK Planning Committee 

Liz Blackler, MBE, LCSW-R
Program Manager
Ethics Committee and Consultation Service

Dana Greenfield, MD, PhD
Assistant Attending
Department of Pediatrics

Lauren Akua Koranteng, PharmD, BCPS
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist
Supportive Care Service
Department of Pharmacy

Johanna Schoen, PhD
Co-Chair, Patient and Family Advisory Council for Quality (PFACQ)

Paul Yoon, MDiv
Program Manager, Spiritual Care

A complete faculty list and schedule will be announced soon.

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity, including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies (commercial interests). All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity.