The Existential Dispatch, Issue No. 40

A Word from the Founding Director

In healthcare, the future arrives as a promise, a risk, and a responsibility. This issue follows that responsibility through psycho-oncology access, cancer care in conflict, the cultural work of illness narratives, and innovations that must earn their place in real clinical worlds. Existential inquiry begins where the person cannot be reduced to a forecast: in the question of what care owes to someone whose future is still unfolding.

Existential Thinker of the Issue

Hans Jonas

“Act so that the effects of your action are compatible with the permanence of genuine human life.” — Hans Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility: In Search of an Ethics for the Technological Age: plato.stanford.edu

Jonas gives clinical ethics a future-facing grammar. His imperative is not an argument against innovation; it asks whether a new intervention, data system, or care pathway protects the conditions in which persons can continue to live, choose, and belong. In oncology and end-of-life care, that means making room for the patient’s future—not only the future measured by survival, but the future of relationships, agency, and meaning.

In Academia

Specialist psycho-oncology is still reaching too few people. A September 18 study of 25 specialist services in England and Scotland found that only 8.4% of new cancer patients were referred, below the approximately 25% estimated to need specialist psychological support; 83% of services judged their referrals to under-represent need. Access is therefore not simply a question of adding a service—it is a question of who is made visible to it. onlinelibrary.wiley.com

In Film, Literature and Culture

Film as a form of clinical witnessing. The 2026 CINEHEALTH festival brought patients, healthcare professionals, filmmakers, and advocates into the same cultural space, with awards presented in Philadelphia on September 15. Illness narratives do not decorate medicine from the outside; they test whose voice is heard, what counts as evidence, and how a life can remain more than its diagnosis. cine-health.com

In Healthcare (Global)

Cancer care under conflict. The World Cancer Congress 2026 programme describes gaps in diagnostics, treatment access, workforce capacity, and financing in Ukraine, while also documenting how services have adapted to remain operational. It also includes evidence on disrupted diagnosis, treatment, and wellbeing among patients in Gaza. Continuity of care is an existential achievement when institutions themselves are under strain. worldcancercongress.org

Funding and Grant Opportunities

ISSEP Research Grants. The International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology lists awards of up to USD $3,000 for quantitative or qualitative projects on meaning, mortality, freedom, identity, uncertainty, and related concerns; the listed application deadline is November 15. Applicants must be ISSEP members, and the page asks for a single PDF emailed to grants@issep.org. Confirm the applicable cycle year and eligibility before preparing a submission. issep.org

Conferences and Events

MIPCC 2026 — 50 Years of Excellence. Montréal’s International Congress on Palliative Care runs October 6–9, 2026, with registration open. Its research forums are designed around evidence, invited reflection, and what new findings may mean for practice, policy, and future research—a useful model for keeping palliative scholarship both rigorous and human. mipcc2026.ca

Startup and Innovation Watch

Techstars Healthcare Accelerator. On September 18, Techstars and Permanente Medicine Mid-Atlantic States announced nine startups selected from more than 1,200 applicants. The cohort spans behavioral health, cognitive decline, prostate cancer diagnosis, prenatal testing, wound care, hearing care, and AI-supported imaging; its Demo Day is scheduled for December 9. The existential test is whether founders learn the realities of care early enough to build with patients and clinicians, rather than merely around them. techstars.com

To Close: An Existential Joke

Why did Hans Jonas refuse the clinical algorithm’s promise of “permanent improvement”? He said the future had not yet consented to the upgrade.