TIPPS Working Group

So there is a definite enthusiasm to contribute, in whatever way. We had one member willing to step up as co-Chair, Nihad and I approve and have forwarded the expression of interest to Saghir and Michael. Given how much else is going on in other areas of SIOP Global and WHO-GICC we will stay with quarterly meetings for now and schedule our next one towards the end of July.

So out of 22 members who had the time (or made the time) to respond, this is who we are. I'm not sure how much I can read into this given the sample size, but a lot of physicians with prolonged commitment to our mission.

The title is deliberately provocative, first of all I should point out that Kate Matthay and Scott Howard have created a wonderful resource in the Global Neuroblastoma Network. As the Chair of the Neuroblastoma Committee of InPOG I can and should learn a lot from attending the meetings, but what I lack is time. In 2020 my Hospital in Varanasi India registered 475 new children with cancer. Even excluding patients who abandoned treatment (13%) or died from disease/infection (13%), this still left over 300 children from last year alone receiving active treatment. I am extremely fortunate to have an experienced team of two residents from Tata, along with two more hired locally, and a team of well trained nurses backed by the resources of Tata Memorial, but when I am exhausted at the end of the day I just don't want to attend another webinar! So while working with POINTE and providing resources is a valid goal of this group, maybe our primary goal should be ensuring that local champions...

POINTE website  is the Paediatric Oncology International Network for Training and Education (I had to guess what it stood for!) that works closely with SIOP Global Health and stores a multitude of resources that could help practitioners in LMIC. 

South America collaboration  is something I would love to see across all regions, a testimonial to how pediatric oncologists working together within a region can help each other and the children they care for!

There are over a hundred e-mail addresses which I need to add manually, so I will be prioritizing and initially adding those who responded, but eventually everyone will be here and hopefully playing an active role. Best wishes, stay safe! Vik

This blog is simply a tool to help our Group communicate more effectively. Feel free to post all your thoughts, ideas, problems and solutions here! It is not intended to substitute for your existing partnerships, but occasionally we can provide guidance as to helpful resources, and hopefully this will become an arena where we can all learn from each other! 😊

There seems to be a consensus in the Group that our focus needs to go beyond institutional twinning and we are looking to foster partnerships between individuals and assist local pediatric oncology champions in whatever way possible. This was reflected in our position paper in PBC last year (which should be accessible to SIOP members) and we will approach the Board to see if we can change the name of our Working Group to reflect this goal.

First I want to express heartfult gratitude to all those in the Group who gave me plenty of ideas in December and more formal feedback as well over the last week. In addition I want to apologize for being AWOL for several months while my hospital was converted into a Covid Hospital and our Unit shifted to a neighboring hospital. I can only begin to imagine what others might be going through, depending on where you are, and my thoughts go out to you all.