In life threatening diseases and disorders like cancer can be harrowing. The symptoms and effects of the disease as its spreads through the body can be severe, often far more serious than the inevitable demise of the body. These are the emotional, physical and mental complications of serious illnesses that need extra care. This is termed as Palliative care. It uses a multidisciplinary approach to treat the pain and stress arising out of the condition.
The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life of the patient. It requires providing the patient with emotional care along with medical support. It involves multiple professionals and disciplines along with the patient’s own support systems, including nursing staff, physicians, occupational therapists, psychiatric care, and physiotherapists. With the rise in cases of cancer, leading pharma marketing companies are now focusing in this discipline with palliative drugs and healthcare solutions.
Palliative Care Team
Oncologist: The oncologist is the cancer specialist and is usually the head of the palliative team. Whatever the decisions of different care specialists, it cannot run if an oncologist objects to its on health grounds. Today more and more hospitals have a palliative care unit and the oncologist will be an integral part of the team. However, it should be noted that the oncologist is usually responsible for just treating the cancer.
Nursing staff: As any healthcare professional will tell you, it is the nursing staff that runs the actual healthcare in any organisation. This is also true at the individual level. The nursing staff at the hospital will be the one primarily responsible in caring for the patient. The nurses will also typically coordinate the different teams in the palliative team, keeping track of a patients progress with the oncologist, therapists, and other care teams.
Pain specialist: Some cancers can become very painful as the disease progresses. This is usually the biggest challenge when it comes to managing the palliative care of a patient. This is why pain specialists have a critical role to play in managing a cancer patient’s care. Pain medicine doctors will diagnose the pain and find the cause. They will prescribe medicines to lessen the pain and make the condition manageable for the patient.
Ayurvedic doctors: Today we also have Ayurvedic pharma marketing companies that are proactively engaged in palliative care. Ayurveda has many benefits here. It not only aims at eating, but is also very effective in the pain management of cancer. It uses natural means — herbs, fruits and other minerals — in making drugs that are aimed at treating cancer as well as managing it. Unlike conventional medicines, Ayurveda has a more holistic approach that encompasses the entire wellbeing of the patient.
Therapists: Body movement becomes difficult as organs are affected in advanced cancer. Therapists come in to help the patient in managing simple movement. Therapists help use exercises to strengthen the body during treatment and chemotherapy. Later it helps in regaining strength. It can be critical as the disease progresses.
Childcare specialists: In cancer cases effecting small children, parents and other family members sometimes need more assistance. Childcare specialists are equipped to deal with children and understand the different facets of caring for a child.
Health workers and volunteers: In some cases, we also have health workers and volunteers who work closely with both the care authorities and the patients. Some volunteers come to patient’s home or to the hospital for general care, such as reading to and entertaining the patient. There are also some healthcare volunteers who work with hospitals in caring for patients.
How Pharma Marketing Can Help In Palliative Care?
Pharma companies are now increasingly involved in palliative care. One of the reasons is there is still no cure for cancer. Most treatment schedules involve expensive chemotherapy drugs. Despite many advancement in chemotherapy drugs, these drugs still have major side-effects such as hair fall, pain and discomfort. The focus, therefore, has moved to palliative care in pain meds. Many pharma companies are now actively engaged in relieving pain and in restoring the physical strength of the patient.
Pharma marketing companies are also engaged in better stress relieving medicines to manage the psychological and mental effect of a harrowing disease like cancer. It is because of such cooperative medicine that we have not only extended life expectation, but also improved quality of life.
