Supporting Loved Ones Through Screening To Survivorship

Urvashi Prasad, Director, Niti Aayog, shed light on the fact that how a multidisciplinary team should be appointed instead of a single doctor to allow the patient to get help and care in all aspects of their life such as nutrition, mental wellbeing and personal relations, among other things.

On the topic of pain management, Swati Bhat, MD and Sr Consultant, Intervention Pain, IPSC Pain and Spine Hospital, Bengaluru, highlighted how medical care has come a long way since when she first started working, underlining how pain was only relieved before with the help of opioids and other pain killers which come with their own set of side effects. “This cycle of taking medication to relieve pain and then taking more medication to relieve the side effects of the previous medication leads to a patient’s quality of life deteriorating. Nowadays, interventions have come to a point that opioids are no longer necessary and with it, the quality of life of cancer patients have also improved as they recover. Dignity till the last breath is what we want to achieve.” she said

Affordable nutrition

Speaking on affordable nutrition while undergoing cancer treatment, Anchal Sharma, Founder - CanHeal and Meals of Happiness, stated how her company has provided patients who cannot afford proper nutrition with ration kits which provide most of the ingredients to have a healthy meal. This is done after a thorough vetting process where her team goes through the patient’s condition and needs. Ambika Rajvanshi, CEO – CanSupport, spoke on her organisation’s contribution to affordable palliative care. Rajvanshi spoke on how her team helps with home-based palliative care where the patient is cared for at their own residence as they do not have the strength to come to the hospital themselves.

Education about cancer

Brijendra Brijmohan Gupta, a cancer fighter, partner – Horizon Institute, Ahmedabad, has been in the field of education for the last 16 years and spoke on how he educated youngsters about cancer by going on yatras and also joining a bullet rider group. He also spoke about going to school and teaching his students while undergoing treatment, to not only make himself feel that he can do it, but also to spread a message that anything is possible.

Overall, this insightful discussion which unfolded as a part of the BW Healthcare World's Oncology Summit. highlighted one message in particular, that, while cancer builds a very difficult phase in one’s life, it can always be better when there are people around to support the one suffering from it.