Providing Palliative Care in Kenya

Hope your summer is going well!

We are looking forward to a productive Fall of 2018 as the Palliative Care program at AMPATH continues to grow and assist our Kenyan colleagues in the wonderful work they do. 

September will be a busy month with four physicians from North American on ground. Dr. Lindsay Dow from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine will return. Her focus will be on educating physicians, nurses and staff on communicating difficult news with compassion, honesty, and support. She will be joined by the first Palliative Medicine Fellow from Mount Sinai to participate in the Eldoret program as part of their education. I will be returning as well - with my boss! Dr. Robert Stone is head of the Palliative Care program at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital. Rob is a specialist in Emergency Medicine and after almost 30 years as head of Bloomington Hospital Emergency Department decided to retool and gained his board certification in Palliative Medicine. He has also had a long affiliation with the IU Health Hospice, serving as co-medical director. His breadth of experience and passion for palliative care will be most welcome. 

With all the clinical help, I plan on working with Drs. Chite Asirwa and Millicent Korir in developing the Pallaitive Care certification program with the goal of accepting the first class in 2019. It will be a lot of work to get the program going will aim to provide physicians, nurses and clinical officers with a one year intensive exposure to hospice and palliative care. 

Thanks everyone for your continued support!