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Abstract Submission

SUBMIT ABSTRACT HERE

Stronger Together: Humanity at the Heart of Palliative Care

Palliative Care Australia (PCA) is Australia’s peak body for palliative care and represents all those who work towards providing high quality palliative care for all Australians. PCA’s mission is to influence, foster and promote the delivery of quality palliative care for all who need it, when and where they need it.

The Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN) is dedicated to promoting hospice and palliative care in Asia and the Pacific. The Network promotes education and skills development, enhances awareness and communication, and fosters research and collaboration. This is achieved through the facilitation of the development of hospice and palliative care programs, the promotion of education in palliative care, and by encouraging co-operation with local, regional and international professional and public organisations across the Asia-Pacific.

Building on the incredible success of the last joint conference in 2009 held in Perth, The Asia Pacific Hospice & Oceanic Palliative Care Conference 2027 (APHC27OPCC) is uniting the region again to continue our efforts to build the future of palliative care, together.

APHC27OPCC welcomes the health, care and community sectors to come together to share knowledge, experience, and innovation in palliative care.

CONTRIBUTE TO THE PROGRAM – YOUR EXPERIENCE MATTERS

The APHC27OPCC Scientific Committee invites abstract submissions that reflect the breadth and diversity of palliative care practice, research, education, policy, lived experience and community initiatives throughout the region.
Whether you are sharing research findings, service innovations, workforce initiatives, community projects, consumer experiences, or reflections from practice, your contribution helps strengthen the collective knowledge of the palliative care community.
We welcome submissions from across the palliative care sector and related disciplines, including health, paediatrics, aged care, disability, community services, education, and policy, and from across Asia-Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, and the Oceanic region.

 

 

WHY SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT?

Submitting an abstract to APCH27OPCC provides an opportunity to:

  • Share your work and experiences with peers in a supportive environment
  • Build skills in communicating effectively to influence palliative care
  • Contribute to scholarly and practice-based dialogue across the region
  • Present rigorously developed research, evaluation, or innovation
  • Influence palliative care policy, systems, and practice
  • Develop best practice patient centred clinical care
  • Engage with interdisciplinary leaders in palliative care
  • Strengthen regional collaboration and shared learning
  • Build new research collaborations with colleagues from across the region

APHC27OPCC Theme | Stronger Together: Humanity at the Heart of Palliative Care

Palliative care is fundamentally about people – those receiving care, their families and carers, and the workforce and communities who support them. Yet care is increasingly delivered within complex systems that can fragment experiences and place pressure on relationships.

APHC27OPCC will explore how palliative care can remain grounded in humanity by strengthening connection, collaboration, and compassion across systems, services, and communities. It will consider how interdisciplinary partnerships, meaningful community engagement, culturally responsive care, and evidence-informed innovation can help sustain a human-centred approach within evolving health systems.

The theme “Stronger Together: Humanity at the Heart of Palliative Care” invites reflection on the ways collaboration across disciplines, sectors, cultures, and communities supports care that is person-centred, equitable, and responsive to the needs of people living with life-limiting illness.

The collaboration between APHN and PCA highlights the importance of addressing equity, workforce sustainability, and the variability of health systems across regional contexts. Together, this partnership recognises the unique challenges and opportunities within these settings and the critical role of collective action in strengthening palliative care.

We encourage submissions that explore how palliative care can honour dignity, relationships, and shared humanity while navigating complex and changing health and care systems.

This collaboration represents an opportunity to create meaningful impact—bringing together diverse perspectives, strengthening partnerships, and advancing approaches that ensure humanity remains at the centre of palliative care.

Presentation Streams

Abstracts should be submitted under one of the following streams. Submissions may address any stream from a specific population, professional, or practice perspective, including paediatric palliative care, First Nations communities, culturally and linguistically diverse populations, or regional and remote settings.

Systems and Solutions

  • Policy
  • Funding and resource approaches to support palliative care
  • Integration
  • Models of care
  • Health services research
  • Innovations
  • Health systems strengthening

Communities and Culture

  • Culturally responsive care
  • Community-led approaches
  • Indigenous perspectives
  • Rural and remote
  • Priority populations
  • Underserved populations
  • Cross regional perspectives
  • Compassionate communities
  • Family carers / unpaid carers

Clinical Excellence across the Lifespan and across Contexts

  • Best practice care across settings
  • Complex care
  • Interdisciplinary practice and models that work in real life
  • Paediatric, adolescent and young adults palliative care
  • Palliative care in aged care
  • Palliative care in chronic disease

Capacity and Leadership

  • Workforce development
  • Education
  • Wellbeing
  • Leadership
  • Volunteering
  • Sustainable Services
  • Community and informal caregiver capacity building
  •  

Research and Innovations

  • Empirical research findings
  • Methodology and measurement of what matters
  • Implementation science and translation into practice
  • Technology and AI
  • Quality Improvement and Evidence Based Practice
  • Patient and public co-designed research

Emerging Work

  • Practice initiative projects
  • Lived experiences
  • Clinical trials (not yet completed)

Instructions for Submitting Your Abstract

Abstracts must be submitted electronically via the online abstract submission portal by the advertised closing date. Emailed submissions will NOT be accepted for review.

Abstracts may present original research, evaluations, innovative practice, service models, education initiatives, policy development, or lived experience.

Research must be completed prior to submission and results must be presented in the abstract*.

*Abstracts submitted to the “Emerging Work” category do not need to present results. Please note that Emerging Work abstracts will be considered for rapid fire or poster presentation only.

We have had problems with ‘results pending’ type abstracts in past which we have had to decline as we cant assess them.

HOW TO WRITE AN ABSTRACT

Presentation Formats

  • Oral presentations – 20 minutes (including 5 minutes for questions).

  • Short form presentations – 7 minutes (including 2 minutes for questions).

  • Poster presentations – static poster display. Presenters must register to attend the conference, and stand by their poster during the designated poster viewing time/s.

  • Workshops – 45 or 90 minutes. Interactive and skills-based, hands-on sessions.

Abstract Review Criteria

All abstracts will undergo blind peer review and will be scored across the following domains with assessment aligned with the project type (e.g., empirical research, projects or programs etc):

Originality and Innovation (30%)
 Originality and Innovation Criteria
  • Novel contribution to knowledge, practice, or policy
  • Innovative models, methods, or approaches
  • Advancement beyond existing literature or practice

 

Reviewers will consider:

  • Clear project/program and/or research question
  • Is the method appropriate to project/research aim and is it clearly described?
  • Are the key results explained and do they clearly relate to the aim/research question?
  • What are the conclusions and are the aligned with the aims/results
  • Are the implications for practice, policy and future research articulated (is there a ‘so what’ factor)?
 

Relevance and impact (30%)

  • Applicability to clinical practice, systems, education, or policy
  • Potential to influence real-world implementation
  • Significance to Asia-Pacific contexts

 

Reviewers will consider:

  • Does the presentation have potential end user, research, real-world policy and/or practice implications?
  • Is this presentation a new or innovative contribution?
  • Will this presentation be of relevance to an audience across the region?

 

Alignment to conference theme: Stronger Together: Humanity at the Heart of Palliative Care (20%)

  • Clear connection to the theme
  • Contribution to strengthening collaboration, humanity, and equity in care
  • Work that pays attention to dignity, values, relationships, lived experience, and ethical responsibility rather than a solely technical or procedural focus.
  • Approaches around co-design, interdisciplinary practice, community involvement, or collective learning that recognises care as a shared human endeavour.

 

Reviewers will consider:

  • Does the presentation align with the conference theme?
  • Does it address current challenges or opportunities in palliative care and related sectors?
  • Will the content contribute to broader conversations around improving systems of care?
  • Does it offer insights or solutions that can help bridge gaps between care systems?

 

Quality of content (20%)

  • Clearly written and complete abstract which communicates the work aligned with its aims.

 

Reviewers will consider:

  • Congruence of title and content of abstract
  • Abstract clearly written
  • The abstract is complete with all required components including presentation of actual results
  • Funding and conflicts of interest appropriately acknowledged as applicable.
  • Content not exact duplicate of material presented elsewhere

 

Abstract Submission Guidelines

Abstract title

Should clearly identify the nature of the abstract and contain major key words. Maximum 12 words.

Author/s

Provide the first name and last name for all authors, with the presenting author listed first.

Format

Specify your preferred presentation format (oral presentation, short form presentation, workshop, poster), noting that the final decision about format is made by the program committee.

Stream

Choose the stream that best reflects the content of your abstract, noting that accepted abstracts may be allocated into alternative streams by the program committee.

Structure

Oral, short form and poster presentations should use the following sub-headings

Background (or what is your paper about)

Aim (or why is it important?)

Methods (or how did you do it?)

Results or Outcome (or what did you find?)

Conclusion (or why is this important?)

Workshops should use the following sub-headings

Background (gives context, identifies the issue being addressed)

Aim (what the participants will learn)

Methods (describes the structure and format of the workshop, including teaching methods, interactive components and skill building exercises)

Audience (identifies the target audience and any limits on numbers)

Outcomes (describes specific learning outcomes and skills to be delivered)

Length

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words, which includes any references

The abstract should not include any reference to institutions or presenters involved to facilitate blind review of the abstracts

Medications should use generic names only

Abbreviations may be used once the name has been spelled out in full

Previous presentation or publication

If you have presented this presentation or paper to another audience or the results of in a publication, please indicate where and when you made the presentation or published the paper.

Biography

Please provide a brief biography (80 words or less) for the presenting author only.

First-time presenter

Let us know if you are a first-time presenter (and consider using the Abstract Mentoring Program before submitting your abstract).

Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture*

Indicate if you wish to be considered for the Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture. This is awarded to the best abstract submitted by an author under the age of 40 who is engaged in the study or delivery of palliative care in any of its component disciplines. The winner will be invited to deliver their presentation in a plenary session at the conference.

*Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture

If you are under the age of 40 and working or doing research in palliative care, regardless of country or sector, you can request that your abstract to be considered for the Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture.

The Ian Maddocks Guest Lecture will be awarded for the best abstract submission by an author under the age of 40, who is engaged in the study or delivery of palliative care in any of its component disciplines. The winner will be invited to present their abstract in an oral plenary session at the conference.

Terms and Conditions

All abstract submissions to APHC27OPCC must adhere to the following terms and conditions:

  • All submissions must be made via the online abstract submission portal and adhere to the submission guidelines. Failure to do so will result in your abstract being declined. Emailed submissions will not be accepted for review.
  • All abstracts must be received by the advertised closing date. Submissions received after this date will not be considered.
  • Presentations are not to include promotions of specific products or services, unless they are integral to the context of the topic.
  • Please ensure your abstract is accurate and clear and has been proof-read before submission. APHN, PCA and the Organising Committee takes no responsibility for errors in published abstracts.
  • Abstracts accepted for presentation must not have been presented elsewhere prior to APHC27OPCC unless agreed by the conference organiser.
  • Abstracts may be accepted as a different format or in a different stream than that indicated in the submission.
  • Presenters must register to attend APHC27OPCC. Presenters are responsible for their own travel and accommodation while attending APHC27OPCC.
  • Presenters must be available to present on any day of the conference as decided by the conference organisers.
  • Presentations at the conference may be recorded for post-conference broadcast and promotion. Recordings will become property of APHN and PCA.
  • All presentations may be included in the CareSearch Grey Literature library.


If this is your first time submitting an abstract, we encourage you to take part in the Abstract Mentoring Program, designed to support presenters throughout the submission process.