Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Liliana De Lima is a native of Colombia, South America and a founding member of the Latin American Palliative Care Association. She has published in several journals and given talks internationally on health policy, opioid availability, and access to pain and palliative care issues as well as on the status of palliative care initiatives in developing countries and regions around the world. She has been affiliated with the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas since 1998 and has held her current role as executive director of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) for the last two years. During this time, IAHPC has grown to become an international resource and served as a bridge to promote the development of palliative care around the world.

In 1989, Ms. De Lima founded La Viga, the first freestanding hospice facility in Colombia and served as program director for six years. La Viga became well known in the community as a center for palliative care and cancer pain relief treatment that suited the needs and conditions of a population with scare resources.

With the support of the Colombian state health authorities from 1990 to 1992, Ms. De Lima implemented a Cancer Pain Initiative for the State of El Valle del Cauca that was modeled after the Wisconsin State Initiative. Its focus was to provide access to treatment for the pain population throughout the regional hospitals. The demonstration project was subsequently used by the national drug regulatory authorities as a model for other states within Colombia.

After moving to the United States in 1995, she worked as a fellow with the Pain and Policy Studies Group at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Since 1996, she has been a consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO)/ Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), working to develop a framework for a palliative care and pain relief program for Latin America and the Caribbean, in addition to creating strategies and designing projects to increase the availability and access to adequate health care for patients with advanced, incurable diseases. In 1998, PAHO appointed Ms. De Lima to be the liaison in supportive care for Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a member of the WHO Expert Medications Committee since 2000.

Ms. De Lima received a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1984 and earned master's degrees in clinical psychology in 1991 and in health care policy and administration in 2000.