Commentary 2013 President’s plenary international psycho-oncology society: embracing the IPOS standards as a means of enhancing comprehensive cancer care B.D. Bultz 1 *, G.G. Cummings 2,3 , L. Grassi 4 , L. Travado 5 , J. Hoekstra-Weebers 6 and M. Watson 7 1 Division of Psychosocial Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary and Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2 Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 3 International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care, Vancouver, Canada 4 Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Biomedical and Specialty Surgical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy 5 Psycho-oncology Unit, Champalimaud Clinical Center, Champalimaud Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal 6 The Netherlands and Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Wenckebach Institute, Groningen, the Netherlands 7 Royal Marsden NHS Trust and Institute of Cancer Research UK and Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK *Correspondence to: Division of Psychosocial Oncology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary and Tom Baker Cancer Centre, 1331 29th Street NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 4N2. E-mail: bdbultz@ucalgary.ca Received: 11 June 2014 Accepted: 11 June 2014 Abstract Background: The second President’s Plenary at the 2013 International Psycho-oncology Society’s World Congress in Rotterdam, the Netherlands aimed to progress and, where needed, initiate changes to achieve comprehensive cancer care. Recent initiatives have been driven by the need to see psychosocial care as an integrated part of holistic multidisciplinary quality cancer care. The President’s Plenary session covered the need for the following: • An internationally agreed standard of quality cancer care, which includes psychosocial care for patients and their families and caregivers. • An endorsement to assess distress as the 6th vital sign. • Psycho-oncology professionals to integrate into a federation promoting better national and international outcomes. Conclusion: This overview highlights progress in terms of enhanced communication between and within different professionals groups supporting the implementation of a model of comprehensive patient care that is inclusive of psychosocial support and screening for distress. Tasks and challenges for the future are set out but the primary message is of the importance of collaboration in order to achieve recognition that psychosocial care is integrated into comprehensive cancer care; in this way, patient, family and carer needs can be more appropriately met. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Background The second President’s Plenary at the 2013 International Psycho-oncology Society’s (IPOS) World Congress in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on embracing the IPOS Standards as a means of enhancing comprehensive cancer care. These standards, conceived and endorsed at the IPOS World Congress in Vienna in 2009 [1], were reiterated and state that (i). quality cancer care must integrate the psychosocial domain into routine care; (ii) distress should be measured as the 6th vital sign after temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate and pain. The 2013 IPOS President’s Plenary examined how progress was being made in implementation of these standards with contributions from the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC), the IPOS Federation of National Societies, the EU European Partnership for Action Against Cancer (EPAAC) and the congress co-host the Dutch Society of Psychosocial Oncology (NVPO). The ISNCC endorsed the need for whole patient care and screening for distress as did the IPOS Federation. The EU EPAAC has also worked to develop the role of psycho-oncology in National Cancer Plans (NCP). Finally, the co-hosts of the IPOS 2013 World Congress, the NVPO made a commitment to the inclusion of whole patient care and the IPOS Standards. While endorsement of the IPOS Standards is a positive step, this will not be sufficient to ensure universal acceptance and implementa- tion. This will require training, funding and champions at the individual country level, and a firm commitment from cancer care professionals and cancer care leadership from global authorities [2]. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Psycho-Oncology Psycho-Oncology 23: 1073–1078 (2014) Published online 21 June 2014 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/pon.3618