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

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

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

Dr. Kathleen Foley and Dr. Eric Krakauer led the course instruction.

The course included 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 focused 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).