Cancer Pain Academy In-Person Course

Chairs: Matti Aapro, CH - Sam Ahmedzai, UK - Johan de Munter, BE

The Cancer Pain Academy is a free of charge in-person course aiming at creating an interactive programme dedicated to oncologists, surgeons, nurses, patient advocates, radiologists, anaesthesiologists and pharmacists to help improve the quality of cancer pain management and to deepen the holistic approach in this care with the points of view of different experts.

Course Format

• Plenary lectures on state-of-the-art clinical treatments with reference to clinical guidelines
• Clinical case presentations and discussion with an international faculty of top experts
• Ground round workshop to put learnings into practice

Learning Objectives

• To raise awareness about the essentials of cancer pain (i.e., pathophysiology of cancer pain and how to assess classify it)
• To discuss the management of pain cases 
• To focus on the importance of when and how to involve the interdisciplinary care team in the care plan
• To educate participants on coping with stressful situations in managing cancer patients with pain

Main Topics

• Pathophysiology of cancer pain
• Assessment and classification of cancer pain
• ESMO & country guidelines in the treatment of cancer pain
• Multimodal management of cancer pain treatment
• Biopsychosocial model of treating cancer pain
• Involvement of interdisciplinary teams in the care plan 

The course is held entirely in English and fluency in English is necessary for admission.

Sharing Progress in Cancer Care
Via Vincenzo Vela, 6
6500 Bellinzona – Switzerland
Tel: +41 91 820 09 68

Martina Radice
martina.radice@spcc.net

Annalisa Musco
annalisa.musco@spcc.net

Practicalities

The Cancer Pain Academy will take place at Mercure Roma West, Italy.

• Selected participants will benefit from 1 night accommodation and meals according to the programme
• Arriving late for the start of the course or leaving early at the end are not acceptable. To receive course credits, attendance to all sessions is required

The course will start on Wednesday 13 December at 13:00 CET and end on Thursday 14 December at 13:30 CET. Participants should arrive on Wednesday 13 December in the morning; a welcome buffet lunch will be organised and will take place in the course venue.

Travel Grants

Travel expenses are reimbursed to selected participants as following:

• Participants from Europe:
  • The cost of travel by air, in economy class, at the most economical available rates, up to a maximum amount of EUR 400.00.
  • The cost of travel by train/bus, at the lowest available rates, up to a maximum amount of EUR 200.00.
• Participants from overseas:
  • The cost of travel by air, in economy class, at the most economical available rates, up to a maximum amount of EUR 1’000.00.

Accreditation

Participants will be issued a certificate of attendance at the end of the event by completing the on-line evaluation questionnaire.

Application for CME recognition has been submitted to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME), an institution of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS).  

The programme was recognised as being of high quality from both a scientific and didactic point of view and was awarded 7 CME credits (for those attending the entire course).

EACCME credits are recognised by the American Medical Association towards the Physician’s Recognition Award (PRA).

Acknowledgements

This course is made possible thanks to independent educational grants from Cloud Pathology Group and Mundipharma.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 2-3 years’ experience in oncology
• Involvement in scientific activities
• Fluency in English

The course is addressed to the following categories with special interest in the management of chronic pain and/or a professional interest in relation to management of pain related to cancer:

• Clinical Oncologists
• Medical Oncologists
• Surgeons
• Nurses
• Patient Advocates
• Radiologists
• Anaesthesiologists
• Pharmacists

How To Apply

Interested participants should apply online (at the top of this page) providing:

• Letter describing motivation for attending
• Supporting letter from head of department or mentor
• CV with list publications (if the list of publications is not provided, it will be assumed that no articles have been published)
• Clinical case (please, use the provided template below)
• Professional experience form (please, use the provided template below)

Clinical Case Presentation

During the in-person event, the 3 best clinical cases will be presented and discussed by participants. A template giving details of the clinical case you would like to present should be submitted with your application. Please provide a straightforward case found in your daily clinical practice - no uncommon or extremely rare cases. You should include:

• Diagnostic considerations
• Treatment
• Results, follow-up
• At least three questions proposed for discussion with the faculty

Before you start completing the online application form, please be sure you have all the requested files (CV, motivation letter, supporting letter, professional experience template and clinical case template) ready to be uploaded to the system. Online applications will not be complete unless all the files are uploaded.

Templates

Download HERE your Professional experience template
Download HERE your Clinical case template