Quality of Life for the Children

The 2009 Quality of Life for the Children once again brings together national and international experts in providing comprehensive care to children and their families with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses to address the knowledge gap of healthcare professionals in pediatric palliative care. The conference will disseminate state of the art information on quality of care for these children and their families. Using this approach we hope to improve the knowledge and effectiveness of the care they provide, regardless of discipline or environment especially in relationship to advanced pain management, as well as the management of dyspnea, neuro-irritability and fatigue, communication techniques, and alternative medicine methods and practices.

So please join us for the third year of Quality of Life for the Children, a highly informative pediatric palliative care conference created for healthcare professionals of all disciplines who want to improve the quality and effectiveness of the care they provide for our seriously ill children.

The conference will be held September 11 & 12, 2009 at Marriott Washington, Washington, DC. You’ll hear presentations by internationally recognized experts on pediatric palliative care from the institutions leading the field in practice and research, including: Children’s Institute for Pain and Palliative Care, Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of Minnesota, Children’s Hospital of Philadephia, Children’s National Medical Center, and Georgetown University Medical Center, to name a few. Attendees of the conference can expect to:

• Describe suffering in pediatric palliative care from the patient, family and professional caregiver standpoint;
• Discuss the dimensions that encompass quality care in pediatric palliative care;
• Increase knowledge on the state of the art pain management in pediatric palliative care;
• Develop skill in opioid titration and conversion for children with life-limiting illness;
• Develop skill with alternative methods of pain management for children with life-limiting illness;
• List types of effective complementary therapies for children with life-limiting illness;
• Illustrate methods of communication for challenging conversations with children and their families;
• Describe dyspnea and methods of treatment in pediatric palliative care;
• Discuss the interaction of medical, legal and ethical issues in pediatric palliative care and the problems and complications inherent in these issues.

Featured Presenters

• Ann Berger, MD, Pain & Palliative Medicine, NIH
• Amani Babgi, PhD, RN, Noorah Oncology Center, King Abdul Aziz Medical City
• Christopher Feudtner, MD, PhD, MPH, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
• Stefan J. Friedrichsdorf, MD, Children’s Institute for Pain and Palliative Care, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
• Sarah Friebert, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, Haslinger Division of Pediatric Palliative Care, Akron Children’s Hospital
• Carlos F. Gomez, MD, PhD, Medical Director DCPPCC
• Julie Hauer, MD, University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Gilette Children’s Specialty Healthcare
• Pamela S. Hinds, PhD, RN Director of Research, Children’s National Medical Center
• Susan K. Rogers, MS, BSN, RN, CHPN, Executive Director, DCPPCC
• Brian Rood, PANDA Care Team, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC
• Aziza Shad, MD, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Georgetown University Hospital
• Carol Taylor, RN, PhD, Director Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University
• Christy Torkildson, RN, PHN, MSN, PhD candidate, University of California San Francisco
• Mary Wheeler, MSN, RN, ACHPN, The Washington Home and Community Hospice, Washington, DC
• Christina Ullrich, MD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massaschusetts
• Daniel Wilson, LCSW, Private Practice