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Letters
Palliative care research in the francophone world We read with great interest the paper by Rhondali et al1 and we thank them for their contribution to a very worthwhile topic. We are involved in palliative care research in Mauritania, West Africa, and we appreciate this piece of research coming from France and we hope it will stimulate more palliative care research, not just in France but throughout the francophone world. As the likes of Uganda2 and Malawi3 have benefitted from close ties to Anglophone palliative care researchers based in Europe and North America, we believe that closer ties between France and specifically francophone Africa would be greatly beneficial. In addition to the barriers the paper identified, the authors propose that difficulty with English could be a further barrier for investigators in France. Given this suggestion we are little surprised to note that the authors chose to publish in an Anglophone journal which perhaps could limit the potential impact of this paper. In the introduction, the authors state that only 2% of European Palliative Care research came from France; however, this is biased as the citing source excluded nonEnglish research4 and the authors
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acknowledge that most of the palliative care research from France is published, in French, in the journal Medicine Palliative. A more encouraging picture is gained from the 2nd Francophone Palliative Care Congress which was held in Canada in 2013 where research was presented from Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. We look forward to the 3rd congress which will be held in Tunisia, 2015 and at this occasion we hope to see many more francophone researchers coming from Africa. This paper highlights multiple barriers which, from our experience, reflects our context. Here, and in France, we believe creative and multidimensional solutions are required to overcome these barriers, or perhaps challenges is a more suitable term implying that they are surmountable. David Fearon,1 Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou2 1
PhD Student, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK 2 Centre National d’Oncologie, Nouakchott, Mauritania Correspondence to Dr David Fearon, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YG, UK; [email protected]
Contributors DF and AOA drafted the manuscript and approved the final version. Competing interests None. Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
To cite Fearon D, Ahmedou AO. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2014;4:226–227. Received 1 July 2014 Accepted 4 July 2014 BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2014;4:226–227. doi:10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000754
REFERENCES 1 Rhondali W, Berthiller J, Hui D, et al. Barriers to research in palliative care in France. BMJ Support Palliat Care 2014;4:182–9. 2 Grant L, Brown J, Leng M, et al. Palliative care making a difference in rural Uganda, Kenya and Malawi: three rapid evaluation field studies. BMC Palliat Care 2011;10:8.
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Letters 3 Murray SA, Grant E, Grant A, et al. Dying from cancer in developed and developing countries: lessons from two qualitative interview studies of patients and their carers. BMJ 2003;326:368. 4 Hui D, Parsons HA, Damani S, et al. Quantity, design, and scope of the palliative oncology literature. Oncologist 2011;16:694–703.
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Palliative care research in the francophone world David Fearon and Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou BMJ Support Palliat Care 2014 4: 226-227 originally published online July 22, 2014
doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000754 Updated information and services can be found at: http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/3/226.2
These include:
References Email alerting service
This article cites 4 articles, 3 of which you can access for free at: http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/3/226.2#BIBL Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in the box at the top right corner of the online article.
Notes
To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
Letters
Palliative care research in the francophone world We read with great interest the paper by Rhondali et al1 and we thank them for their contribution to a very worthwhile topic. We are involved in palliative care research in Mauritania, West Africa, and we appreciate this piece of research coming from France and we hope it will stimulate more palliative care research, not just in France but throughout the francophone world. As the likes of Uganda2 and Malawi3 have benefitted from close ties to Anglophone palliative care researchers based in Europe and North America, we believe that closer ties between France and specifically francophone Africa would be greatly beneficial. In addition to the barriers the paper identified, the authors propose that difficulty with English could be a further barrier for investigators in France. Given this suggestion we are little surprised to note that the authors chose to publish in an Anglophone journal which perhaps could limit the potential impact of this paper. In the introduction, the authors state that only 2% of European Palliative Care research came from France; however, this is biased as the citing source excluded nonEnglish research4 and the authors
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acknowledge that most of the palliative care research from France is published, in French, in the journal Medicine Palliative. A more encouraging picture is gained from the 2nd Francophone Palliative Care Congress which was held in Canada in 2013 where research was presented from Africa, North America, Europe and Asia. We look forward to the 3rd congress which will be held in Tunisia, 2015 and at this occasion we hope to see many more francophone researchers coming from Africa. This paper highlights multiple barriers which, from our experience, reflects our context. Here, and in France, we believe creative and multidimensional solutions are required to overcome these barriers, or perhaps challenges is a more suitable term implying that they are surmountable. David Fearon,1 Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou2 1
PhD Student, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK 2 Centre National d’Oncologie, Nouakchott, Mauritania Correspondence to Dr David Fearon, International Observatory on End of Life Care, Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YG, UK; [email protected]
Contributors DF and AOA drafted the manuscript and approved the final version. Competing interests None. Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
To cite Fearon D, Ahmedou AO. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2014;4:226–227. Received 1 July 2014 Accepted 4 July 2014 BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2014;4:226–227. doi:10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000754
REFERENCES 1 Rhondali W, Berthiller J, Hui D, et al. Barriers to research in palliative care in France. BMJ Support Palliat Care 2014;4:182–9. 2 Grant L, Brown J, Leng M, et al. Palliative care making a difference in rural Uganda, Kenya and Malawi: three rapid evaluation field studies. BMC Palliat Care 2011;10:8.
Downloaded from http://spcare.bmj.com/ on July 11, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Letters 3 Murray SA, Grant E, Grant A, et al. Dying from cancer in developed and developing countries: lessons from two qualitative interview studies of patients and their carers. BMJ 2003;326:368. 4 Hui D, Parsons HA, Damani S, et al. Quantity, design, and scope of the palliative oncology literature. Oncologist 2011;16:694–703.
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Downloaded from http://spcare.bmj.com/ on July 11, 2015 - Published by group.bmj.com
Palliative care research in the francophone world David Fearon and Ahmedou Ould Ahmedou BMJ Support Palliat Care 2014 4: 226-227 originally published online July 22, 2014
doi: 10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000754 Updated information and services can be found at: http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/3/226.2
These include:
References Email alerting service
This article cites 4 articles, 3 of which you can access for free at: http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/3/226.2#BIBL Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article. Sign up in the box at the top right corner of the online article.
Notes
To request permissions go to: http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions To order reprints go to: http://journals.bmj.com/cgi/reprintform To subscribe to BMJ go to: http://group.bmj.com/subscribe/
