Dr. Archana Iyengar is a physician, educator, colleague, and leader helping shape the future of pediatric palliative care in India. This summer, through our partnership with Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration (TWCC) we were honoured to welcome Dr. Archana to Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and facilitate a visit with the Canuck Place Research Initiative team that works out of BC Children’s Hospital. The longstanding relationship between our teams has been a bridge in strengthening care for children and families in both parts of the world.

Our connection with Dr. Archana has grown through our shared work with TWCC, a volunteer-based organization dedicated to improving cancer and palliative care globally through education, mentorship, and collaborations. The Sunflower Children’s Network (SCN) is TWCC’s pediatric initiative.

Through the Sunflower Children’s Network, Canuck Place clinicians have worked alongside colleagues in South and Southeast Asia for years, sharing expertise while learning from the creativity, resilience, and innovation required to deliver quality care in resource-limited settings. Dr. Archana often speaks about the importance of mentorship and teamwork, describing pediatric palliative care not as the work of one individual, but of an entire community united around children and families.

Dr. Archana’s work spans an extraordinary continuum of care. She supports children with cancer and other complex serious illnesses in hospital settings, provides care in a children’s hospice, oversees home-based pediatric palliative care services, and leads a growing perinatal care program through the Pain Relief and Palliative Care Society in Hyderabad, India.

Meeting families where they are means understanding where a child feels most comfortable and shaping care around what matters to them. (Photo: Harsha Vadlamani/TWCC)

At any given time, hundreds of children are connected to her team through hospital, hospice, and community programs, helping children and families navigate serious illnesses wherever they are most comfortable.

Despite differences in healthcare systems and available resources, the philosophy behind Dr. Archana’s work feels remarkably familiar to Canuck Place’s.

“We should provide care where the child and family want to be,” Dr. Archana explained while describing her home-based care program.

For many families, that means receiving care at home whenever possible. This commitment to meeting families where they are is shared by Canuck Place through our Nancy Chan Enhanced Community Care program, which helps ensure children and families across BC and the Yukon can access support in their homes and communities.

“When we see how the child is doing, what their room is like, who the caregiver is, and how they are caring for themselves, we get a much clearer picture of what that child needs and how best to support them.”

Dr. Archana

Physician

Through home visits, Dr. Archana also sees the strength of closely connected family networks. In many households, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings share caregiving responsibilities, creating a broader circle of support around both the child and their caregivers.

Those visits also offer a window into the unique realities families face. In some communities, stigma surrounding serious illness remains strong enough that families ask Dr. Archana’s team not to park their palliative care van near the house. Instead, the team will park farther away and walk to the home, ensuring children and families receive the support they need in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them.

This ability to adapt care to each family’s needs is central to Dr. Archana’s approach.

A meaningful part of a family’s care is memory making—creating meaningful experiences or keepsakes that help a family stay connected to their loved one. At Canuck Place, a family might choose to honour their child through a creative art project or by wearing a heart pendant.

Creating shared experiences and keepsakes helps families honour their child and remain connected to them. (Photo: Chuck Russell/TWCC)

During conversations about memory making with Dr. Archana, she reflected on the importance of ensuring every voice is heard, particularly the mother’s. In some situations she’s encountered, decisions may be led by elders or other family members before the mother has had an opportunity to share. Creating space for those conversations helps ensure that each family’s wishes are heard and honoured.

One of the most innovative aspects of Dr. Archana’s work is her perinatal care program, launched in 2024. Connecting with parents during pregnancy, the program was built in response to the experiences of families who shared how much earlier support and preparation would have helped them during their journey.

The program shares many aspects of Canuck Place’s perinatal care, with families receiving counselling, care planning, symptom management support, memory-making opportunities, and bereavement care tailored to their needs and preferences. In Hyderabad, the program also creates space for families to honour important cultural traditions. In one instance, Dr. Archana and her team helped a family celebrate a traditional 21-day cradling ceremony for their baby in hospice.

The program has helped bridge obstetric, neonatal, and palliative care teams, ensuring families receive coordinated, comprehensive support before, during, and after birth.

Beyond her clinical work, Dr. Archana is growing pediatric palliative care for future generations through her work as an educator. Over the past few years, she has helped expand education for pediatricians, nurses, oncologists, and adult palliative care physicians, and contributed to the development of national pediatric palliative care standards in India.

By sharing knowledge with future generations of clinicians, today’s leaders are helping more children and families access compassionate care. (Photo: Chuck Russell/TWCC)

Dr. Archana’s passion to learn and share knowledge was evident throughout her visit to Vancouver. During her time at Canuck Place, Dr. Archana shared that she was particularly inspired by the role of volunteers, the use of music and play, storytelling, and the many collaborative care approaches that help children and families find comfort and connection.

She also reflected on the strength of collaborative teamwork, the importance of creating spaces where joy can exist alongside grief, and intentional communication.

What became clear during her visit was that innovation in pediatric palliative care is not defined by geography, but by a commitment to meeting the needs of children and families with compassion and courage.

Throughout her work, Dr. Archana has shown an outstanding willingness to turn ideas into action, with her philosophy to “think big and start small,” whether she is advocating for a new service, building a program from the ground up, or finding creative solutions to meet a family’s needs.

Early in her career, Dr. Archana wrestled with a common question at the end of a difficult day, how was your day? Her mentor, Dr. Gayatri Palat, founder of the Pain Relief and Palliative Care Society and a longstanding leader in palliative care in India, offered a perspective that has stayed with her ever since.

If a child’s symptoms were eased, if a family felt supported, and if good care had been provided, then it has been a good day.

Partnership and collaboration in pediatric palliative care brings people, perspectives and ideas together to strengthen care across communities

That perspective continues to guide Dr. Archana’s work today. It also reflects the spirit of the partnership between Canuck Place and TWCC, a shared belief that no matter where children live, every family deserves compassionate care, thoughtful support, and a team willing to walk alongside them. As Dr. Archana reminded us during her visit, “In palliative care, it’s never ‘I.’ It’s always ‘we.'”