Moving Palliative and End-of-life Care Forward Conference

May 17–21, 2010

Conference invitees will include all members of the ICE team (including trainees), community stakeholders, key policy makers from all provinces concerned, and other concerned parties, including medical residents and academic/community partners.

In addition to presentations featuring research outcomes, facilitated workshops and discussion groups will make up the core of this final conference.

Registration is not required and there is no cost to attend. This information sharing series is organized by a cross-Canada and international team of CIHR-funded researchers and healthcare providers.

We would like to hear from you about your concerns, programs, and/or services at this conference; and we would like to share our completed research that addresses these concerns:

• the number of people who pass away each year is doubling, with advance planning needed for “good” deaths.
• most (80–90%) of the people who die today are advanced in age or have advanced end-stage illnesses, and their care and support needs differ from those who die suddenly.
• a major shift of death and dying out of hospital has occurred without planning in Canada, leaving nursing homes and families with few resources to cope with greater palliative and end-of-life care roles.
• people who live in rural and remote areas have unique needs and interests, and less access to specialized palliative care and other end-of-life services that commonly exist now in urban areas.

If you will attend in person . .

• sessions will held in Room TB-95, Tory Building, University of Alberta (North Campus) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

If you will attend virtual conference sessions via the internet . .

• we will provide real-time, interactive access using Elluminate Live! so that you can see and hear presentation material, and participate in the discussion.
• note that Alberta is on Mountain Daylight Time.
• this conference URL will be only be active between May 17–21:
  https://eclasslive.srv.ualberta.ca/Nursing/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1265837176917
• a URL for testing your computer's connection to Elluminate is active now . .
  Please check your computer now to make sure it can use Elluminate.
• copy the following URL and paste it into your browser's address bar:

http://www.elluminate.com/Support/?id=62/

This will open a webpage that automatically detects if the Java software required to launch Elluminate is installed on your computer.

• 'Step 1' will display a check mark if everything is ok. Otherwise, a red 'X' will be displayed along with information about what is missing.
• after verifying the Java software, test your computer’s audio by clicking the “configuration room” link (Step 2). An Elluminate session will open and it will be self-explanatory after this.
• if you encounter difficulties accessing the link or with the Elluminate program, please consult your local IT/computer experts regarding firewall settings.

We encourage you to attend and to invite others, as we look forward to many good discussions!

Donna Wilson, RN, PhD
Edmonton host (inquiries by email: donna.wilson@ualberta.ca or by phone: 780-492-5574)