The Indian Association of Palliative Care (IAPC) is a registered Public Trust and Society and was formed on 16th March, 1994 in Ahmedabad, in consultation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Government of India as a national forum to connect, support and motivate individuals and institutions involved in palliative care.

Since then, the IAPC has been working as the National Umbrella organization for Palliative Care in India. It has over 2500 registered life members which includes Individual Members, Institutional Members and Overseas members.

The IAPC has been actively working towards improving the delivery of quality palliative care in India through –

• Implementing palliative care educational programs for health care professionals.
• Creating and organizing awareness programs for the public and society at large.
• Engaging in advocacy with the Government and other relevant agencies both within India and across the world.
• Collaborating with both the Central and State Governments to develop and implement the National and State level palliative care policies to ensure that palliative care is accessible and affordable to those who need it
• Assist in implementing the amended Narcotic rules to ensure that morphine and other opioids are freely available and accessible to those in need of it.

Governance Structure

The IAPC is governed by a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer. These core members are assisted by the Central Council Members, the National Information Officer and the Program Manager: Projects and Advocacy. Please click on the link Central Council Members of IAPC and IAPC Constitution to know more about their appointment, tenure, role, etc.

Activities

The IAPC also serves as an Information Service portal for Palliative Care related enquiries in India –

• The IAPC organizes, coordinates, and publicizes the activities of the Association.
• The IAPC facilitates communication between it’s members, the palliative care service providers, the office bearers of IAPC and other relevant agencies.
• The association leads various advocacy activities related to palliative care within the country.
• The IAPC also offers and coordinates one of the country’s most popular palliative care training program’s: the Certificate Course in Essentials of Palliative Care (CCEPC), which is conducted across 42 centres in India.
• The IAPC’s website is updated regularly to reflect the latest and relevant information, guidelines, news, events, details of the IAPC’s academic programs and other activities from the field of palliative care. The website also provides details of its members and office bearers, along with hosting the Directory of available Palliative Care services within the country.
• The IAPC also serves as a resource center as it recently launched and co-ordinates the online training program of IAPC, under the aegis of the IAPC Academy.

IAPC’s Current Projects:

1. Academic Projects

• The IAPC Certificate Course in Essentials of Palliative Care (CCEPC)
  The CCEPC program was launched in November 2007 to train Doctors and Nurses on the basics in Palliative Care. We are proud to report that till date, the program has successfully trained over 8000 professionals through 42 course centres across the country. Click here to read more details about this program.
   
• The IAPC Academy
  The IAPC achieved another milestone on June 2020, the IAPC Academy. The Academy launched a series of free online training programs to train and empower the physicians and students of Palliative Medicine students along with other health care professionals on the various aspects of palliative care. These hugely successful virtual programs are being offered every Monday between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Click here to read further information regarding this.
   
• Academy of Palliative Medicine
  The Academy of Palliative Medicine (APM) was established on 1 May, 2022, under the aegis of IAPC and in partnership between IAPC, Suprajit Foundation (a Charitable Trust) and Bangalore Hospice Trust –Karunashraya (a Charitable Trust). 
  
  The common interest to develop palliative care in India, and the acknowledgement and recognition of the imminent need in the sector to build competencies and capacities within the domain of palliative care culminated in the formation of the Academy of Palliative Medicine. The purpose of creating the APM is to therefore create an alternate path to specialist palliative medicine training and accreditation in India. 
  
  Currently, only few training opportunities exist for specialist palliative medicine training with several institutions finding it difficult to start and offer MD Palliative Medicine program due to stringent Medical Council of India requirements. 
  
  APM stives to create a nationally valid qualification (Fellow of Academy of Palliative Medicine – FAPM) that could create specialist level employment opportunities for the existing and new doctors in palliative medicine. It may provide opportunities to the non-medical college institutions in India to participate in specialist palliative medicine training. It will create a pathway for MD/MS/DM/MCh doctors in other clinical specialities practising palliative care to become a palliative medicine specialist. It will also provide a structured training pathway to MBBS doctors practicing palliative care for many years to become a palliative medicine specialist. The overall impact of the APM is to augment the capacity to provide specialist palliative care through palliative care training at the specialist level.

2. Journal

The Indian Journal of Palliative Care (IJPC) is a quarterly publication by the IAPC, so as to promote Research in palliative care and the subsequent dissemination of knowledge across the country.
The Indian Journal of Palliative Care is an interdisciplinary, a peer reviewed and an open access journal.

• DOAJ.
• Emerging Sources Citation Index.
• Indian Science Abstracts.
• PubMed Central.
• Scimago Journal Ranking.
• SCOPUS, Web of Science.

3. Conferences

The IAPC hosts and organizes the IAPC’s Annual International Conference, every February. This conference provides palliative care professionals with an opportunity to network, collaborate and share domain specific knowledge and best practices. Additionally, the conference serves as an international platform to generate awareness and promote education and research in palliative care.

The conference hosts an average of 500 delegates from both India and abroad, and boasts of a pool of National and International faculty from the field of palliative care participating in the conference each year.

4. Newsletter

The IAPC publishes an exciting and informative monthly newsletter to share and disseminate relevant news from the field of palliative care. It features the list of IAPC’s activities, the upcoming events, stories, experiences and other interesting reads related to palliative care. Please click here to read our newsletters.