[Press release] The Cancer Association of South Africa has partnered with Alignd to improve access to palliative care for cancer patients. Cancer and its treatment can cause physical side effects and result in negative emotional, social and financial consequences for patients and their family. Palliative care is an important part of cancer care that should be included along with treatments. The goal of...
How our first patients let us know we were doing the right thing. When we started Alignd, and building the Alignd palliative care offering, we had years and years of training, research, networking and experience between us. It covered all the fields and skills needed to launch a business like this. And we had planned everything in minute detail. But until we...
Dr Pelisa Ford is a practising oncologist and palliative care physician. That’s a fairly rare combination, but a very powerful one for her patients. Here’s why… “I wouldn’t be the doctor I am today, without palliative care,” says Dr Pelisa Ford. When Pelisa was a medical officer in oncology – not yet a qualified oncologist – her role was to look after the patients...
Palliative care doctor, Dr Cameron Bruce, chooses to care for patients away from a frenetic hospital environment where physicians run in and out of rooms, order lab tests and check results. He chooses to sit down with patients and their families, to stay longer, and offer deep care and comfort. When curative treatment ceases to work, patients can sometimes feel hopeless,...
Dr Nosisa Matsiliza wants medical practitioners and patients to know that palliative care doesn’t mean giving up; palliative care is not just for the very last days of life. Dr Nosisa Matsiliza was practising palliative care long before she officially trained as a palliative care doctor in 2017. The holistic approach to care – looking at physical, psycho-social...
Dr Julia Ambler is a paediatric palliative care doctor who, together with the team at Umduduzi Hospice in KZN, provide care and support for very sick children and their families. Her primary tools are honesty, empathy and expertly administered morphine. There’s a story Dr Julia Ambler tells about a two-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a rare, slow-growing brain tumour. Because...
