Pain and Policy Studies Group announces 2008 Fellows
June 11, 2008
 
MADISON—The Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG) is very pleased to announce the selection of nine Fellows for its 2008 International Pain Policy Fellowship (IPPF) program.  With the success of the IPPF 2006, the Open Society Institute’s (OSI) International Palliative Care Initiative is funding a second class of Fellows for a two-year project. 

The purpose of the Fellowship is to assist low and middle income countries to improve patient access to pain medicines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for pain of cancer, HIV/AIDS and other diseases. United Nations bodies, including the WHO and the International Narcotics Control Board, have expressed concern about the low consumption of controlled pain medicines in the world, especially in developing countries.

Fellows will train with the PPSG and other international experts in Madison, Wisconsin, USA during the week of 16-20 June 2008. They will develop action plans to improve opioid availability that they will implement during the next two years with follow-up technical support from the PPSG and grant support from the OSI.  Fellows will be accompanied to Madison by a Ministry of Health representative, which demonstrates their government’s willingness to support efforts to improve opioid availability for pain management in their respective country.

The nine selected Fellows are:

1. Zipporah Ali, MD, MPH, Dip. Palliative Care, Kenya
2. Adrian Belîi, MD, PhD, Republic of Moldova
3. Eva Rossina Duarte Juárez, MD, MA, Guatemala
4. Pati Dzotsenidze, MD, Georgia
5. Hrant Karapetyan, MD, PhD, Republic of Armenia
6. Irina Kazaryan, PharmD, PhD, MSc, Republic of Armenia
7. Bishnu Dutta Paudel, MD, MBBS, Nepal
8. Margaret Dingle Spence, BSc, MBBS, Dip. Pall. Med., FRCR, Jamaica
9. Verna Walker-Edwards, BSc, Pharmacy, Jamaica