The Lien Collaborative for Palliative Care was inaugurated in Myanmar when the first training was rolled out from 16-22 June 2013. Five expert faculty, 3 doctors and 2 nurses from Singapore and Australia, taught 27 selected candidates from around the country, doctors, nurses and medical social workers, from 11 hospitals and 1 hospice. The host was the Department of Oncology at Yangon General Hospital, the country’s largest teaching hospital. A National Seminar on Opioids was held in Yangon on 5 Oct 2013, organised by the Myanmar Society for the Study of Pain and supported by 3 overseas faculty from the APHN and the Pain and Policy Study Unit, Wisconsin, USA.
Bangladesh was the second country to have this programme. Six faculty, 3 doctors and 3 nurses from Australia, India and Singapore, taught 50 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and social workers from 25-31 July 2013. The teaching took place at the Palliative Care Unit of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University and at the Oncology ward of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital in Dhaka. A seminar on Opioid Availability was held on 11 April 2013, attended by the Director of Narcotics and his staff. Work is also in progress on a MD curriculum for Palliative Care, supported by APHN faculty. When completed in Dec 2013, this will enable the discipline to be recognised as a medical specialty.