Page 146 - 2019-安寧專刊

Congratulations on 20 years celebration of the Taiwan Academy of Hospice Palliative Medicine
On behalf of the International Observatory on End of Life Care, at Lancaster University, United Kingdom, Professor Catherine Walshe and Emeritus Professor Sheila Payne, send warm and sincere congratulations to the Taiwan Academy of Hospice Palliative Medicine (TAHPM) on its 20th year celebrations.
Globally, there remain many unmet needs for hospice and palliative care services. Taiwan demonstrates outstanding development of these services and is widely recognised as a world leader. For example, it was the highest ranked Asian country and overall ranked in 6th place in the Quality of Death Index (2015). This achievement is undoubtedly due to strong collaboration and support from TAHPM in mobilising specialist palliative medicine education, designing the delivery of high-quality services, and ensuring exemplary strategic and policy development, and access to the resources that enable hospice and palliative care services to be widely available for patients in Taiwan. Both Professor Walshe and Professor Payne have been delighted and impressed to observe these services and to meet some of the multidisciplinary team members on their visits to Taiwan.
Moreover, in Taiwan palliative medicine physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals are known to take an active role in scholarly endeavours and research thereby contributing a high proportion of papers to leading professional journals such Palliative Medicine. Professor Walshe, as Editor in Chief of Palliative Medicine, has been delighted to note the increase in high quality submissions to the journal from Taiwan. Recent contributions have included high quality systematic reviews and cohort studies made possible by the high quality routine data available in Taiwan. The influence of these activities in driving cutting-edge scientific medical and nursing education in palliative care, has an impact within Taiwan, neighbouring countries in South East Asia, and increasingly internationally. The free exchange of ideas, clinical expertise and ground- breaking research bodes well for the future.
We warmly welcome and applaud the achievements of the TAHPM over the last 20 years and more importantly, look forward with great hope and anticipation, to a bright future where patients with palliative care needs can receive timely high quality, compassionate care.
Professor Catherine Walshe Professor Sheila Payn
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Chapter 5
勉勵與祝福