APPM Special Interest Groups
Hospice Medical Director/Medical Leads Group
The Hospice Medical Directors/Medical Leads group has recently been set up under the leadership of Dr Christine Mott. At the inaugural meeting she said that "being a Hospice Medical Lead can be quite isolating with no large team around for support. If this group could offer support to each other that would be a useful purpose."
The group has now met several times and will continue to meet on a quarterly basis. Their Terms of Reference are still under construction but it is likely that topics to be discussed and shared will include workforce issues, medical models, sharing difficult cases, access and management of medications, etc.
If there are Medical Directors or Medical Leads working in a hospice who are not yet part of this group and would like to be, please contact mailto: admin@appm.org.uk for further details.
Research Group - Together for Short Lives and Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine
To further help foster academic research, Together for Short Lives and the APPM (Association of Paediatric Palliative Medicine) run a multi-disciplinary joint Research Group to help to develop a culture of research and build research capacity across the children’s palliative care sector. The group is a valuable resource for all those engaging in practice and research of children’s and young people’s palliative care. The group is chaired by Dr Emily Harrop and Dr Helena Dunbar and meets virtually three times a year. If you would like further information about this group, please contact mailto: admin@appm.org.uk for further details.
Transition & Young Adults Special Interest Forum - Joint Forum between APM and APPM
This subgroup started its life as a forum for adult palliative medicine physicians as part of the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM), however over the years we have established links between the APM and the APPM and in 2023 the Transition and Young adult group officially became a cross-organisational group enabling greater collaboration and understanding between our two specialties. (See Terms of Reference)
A key role of the group is providing peer support and shared learning for all palliative health care professionals working with young adults with complex conditions. We meet online 3-4 times a year and meetings include time for learning through case discussions as well as wider conversation around education and service development at local and national levels.
The group also acts as a hub for sharing information about national developments, training and research that have relevance to Transition. We want to ensure that both paediatric and adult palliative medicine is actively contributing to discussions around service development to address the unmet needs of this growing population.
We would welcome any new members. Please contact mailto: admin@appm.org.uk if you would like to know more.