The Presidential Symposium: Communicating with Parents and Children about a Cancer Diagnosis was extraordinarily well received by meeting attendees and because it is a topic with wide application ASPHO has decided to make the session recordings available to all members with our compliments.

Additionally, ASPHO has invited the symposium faculty and all interested members to join an online discussion on the “Day 1 Talk” and the issues and findings discussed at the symposium. This is a new feature for members only and can be accessed in the Members Only section of the web site. Select the link for the ASPHO networking site, Connecting.ASPHO.org and follow the links and directions to join this online eGroup.

If you need help with your Members Only log in, please contact the Member Services Group at 847-375-4716.

Communicating with parents and children is one of the most important things a pediatric hematologist-oncologist can do, yet the lack of available training in this area means that physicians often learn this skill by trial and error. This workshop will focus specifically on communication with parents and children and will evaluate the current literature that can help to inform our practice. In particular, the literature suggests that parents often have misconceptions about treatment intent and prognosis, issues that have the potential to affect treatment decision-making. We will therefore focus specifically on informed consent and discussion about prognosis as challenging but crucial aspects of communication. In addition, limited research has addressed the best ways to communicate with children and adolescents; we will review the available literature and discuss communication techniques appropriate for pediatric patients.