Salzburg Seminar: Palliative Care for Patients with TB or HIV/TB

The International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Public Health Program will convene a professional seminar focused on providing palliative care for patients with TB or HIV/TB coinfection.

The seminar aims to provide practicing clinicians with information and strategies necessary to provide evidence-based palliative care interventions to patients with complications of TB or its treatment (including drug-resistant forms of TB and HIV coinfection). The seminar will introduce participants to comprehensive educational tools and materials they can use to teach the core competencies of palliative care to practicing health care professionals and trainees.

The seminar will take place at the Schloss Arenberg Center for Arts and Sciences in Salzburg, Austria, from February 26 to March 3, 2012. It will be conducted in English with simultaneous Russian translation.

Dr. Kathleen Foley and Dr. Eric Krakauer will lead the course instruction.

The course will include both interactive plenary and workshop sessions and emphasize the role of palliative care in the trajectory of care for patients with complicated forms of TB to improve their quality of life and increase their adherence to effective therapies. Discussions will focus on strategies for developing comprehensive palliative care initiatives, negotiating goals of care, educational resources, and pain and symptom management (including dyspnea, nausea, vomiting, constipation, bowel obstruction, anorexia/cachexia, edema/effusions, anxiety, depression, delirium, and immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome).   

The cost of round-trip economy airfare or railroad travel, hotel accommodations, and all meals will be provided. Please note: visa costs, in-country transportation costs, insurance, and per diems are not covered and are the responsibility of each participant.  

Who Should Apply

Eligible participants will be citizens from countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union who are living and working in their home country. The course is recommended for physicians who provide direct care to patients with TB, HIV/TB, MDR-TB, or MDX-TB, or who play a major role in developing public health policies for the care of patients with TB.  Physicians from the following specialties are potential candidates for this course: infectious disease, pulmonology, internal medicine, intensive care, HIV /AIDS, TB, narcology, public health, primary care, and palliative care.

The ideal applicant will care for patients on a weekly basis, teach other health care professionals and trainees on a regular basis, belong to a university faculty or  curriculum committee, belong to a national or international professional organization, or hold a position of influence–for example, a deputy director of an HIV or TB or palliative care center. Candidates fulfilling these criteria will be given priority.

 All participants must be able and committed to attend the entire course.

Application and Selection Process

Download and complete the application form included below. All applications must be emailed to ebehar@sorosny.org by November 1, 2011. The final selection of participants will be made by the course directors. Selected candidates will be notified in December 2011.

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