OCHER

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced major shifts in the ways we communicate with others in formal institutional/workplace settings. This Special Issue aims to investigate the findings of experts and users with respect to the different forms of remote or technologically-mediated communication that were often adopted on the spot from a variety of theoretical angles and methodological perspectives (conversation/discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, pragmatics, ethnography of communication and linguistic anthropology). For enquiries, please contact the guest editors:

Anne Bannink e.a.bannink@uva.nl

Jet Van Dam  h.r.vandamvanisselt@uva.nl

Deadline is extended to November 1st, 2020.  Call for papers at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/Institutional_Discourse

We are pleased to announce two very interesting keynote speakers for OCHER 2021, Sarah Bigi and Marie-Anne Durand. Bigi works at the Catholic University of Milan, and Durand at the Universities of Toulouse and Lausanne. They represent two radically different but equally important approaches to the study of interactions in medicine, and will definitely add new understanding to our community.

Bigi’s talks:

“Models of interaction in healthcare communication studies: the missing link between theory and practice” – Based on argumentation theory, she will argue in favor of a distinction between models of communication and paradigms of care, which sometimes in the healthcare communication literature seem to be confused or conflated.

“What are people doing when they talk? Challenges in assessing what ‘good communication’ looks like” – She asks: how do we assess the quality of communication if we want to use discursive criteria (and not, for example, patient satisfaction or perceptions)? How can we assess what people are ‘doing to each other’ with their utterances if we cannot analyze people’s intentions? And how do we distinguish between argumentation and explanation in real-life dialogues?

Durand’s talks:

“What Matters Most: Randomized Controlled Trial of Breast Cancer Surgery Conversation Aids Across Socioeconomic Strata” – about the effect of a paper-based pictorial conversation aid (pictures+ text) to patients with early-stage breast cancer. They studied effects across socioeconomic strata as well as between surgeons applying the aids.

“Implementing patient-centered innovations in healthcare: from theory to practice” – about the main implementation frameworks and examples of their use.

We have now made our update of the publication list of OCHER members working in Norway. This time we have added 28 papers to the list. Search term used in PubMed is (Gulbrandsen P OR Finset A OR Eide H OR Svennevig J OR Gerwing J OR Ofstad EH OR Kasper J OR Steinsbekk A OR Menichetti J), limited backward to 2 July 2019. This search returned 80+ papers, but some were already included, and some were not related to OCHER (Kasper J includes several other authors than “our” Kasper).

As it looks now on July 2 in Europe, we remain in the hope that it will be possible to run the OCHER 2021 on January 13-15 as planned. We have had some delay in planning for keynote speakers. We hope to be able to announce them by mid July. We have not changed the dates for the rest of the preparations: By August 15: Invitation will be sent to former participants, and announced. Abstract deadline will be September 15. If less than 25 abstracts, we will cancel the workshop. Registration deadline will be October 5 and non-negotiable. If less than 40 registrations, we will cancel the workshop. October 19 is our last date for cancelling, however, we will make clear that changes in the course of the pandemic might make us cancel the event at any time.

Today, on April 1, 2020, it is impossible to predict how the COVID-19 pandemic will evolve and change the world over the next months and maybe years. At this stage, we remain in the hope that it will be possible to run the OCHER 2021 on January 13-15 as planned. This is how we will proceed: By June 20: Keynote speakers will be announced. By August 15: Invitation will be sent to former participants, and announced. Abstract deadline will be September 15. If less than 25 abstracts, we will cancel the workshop. Registration deadline will be October 5 and non-negotiable. If less than 40 registrations, we will cancel the workshop. October 20 is our tentative last date for cancelling, however, we will make clear that changes in the course of the pandemic might make us cancel the event at any time. We are currently negotiating terms with the hotel.

Maria Grazia Rossi, who works in Lisbon and visited OCHER this year, organizes a workshop in Lisbon in the middle of June. Look it up at this website: https://metacare.fcsh.unl.pt/call-for-poster-2nd-conference-on-caring-discourse/

At OCHER 2020, the annual research workshop on communication in healthcare at Thon Hotel Triaden, close to Oslo, we have now accepted more than 30 abstracts. We have two international keynote speakers, Arwen Pieterse and Merran Toerien. This year’s workshop features plenary workshops as well as three plenary presentations of submitted abstracts. Here is the Program 9th OCHER 2020 – final Oct 7 2019. We have a bunch of new, interesting presenters from several countries, including Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. Save the dates January 15-17.

We have now made our update of the publication list of OCHER members working in Norway. This time we have added almost 40 papers to the list. This demonstrates the high output of research coming from this group. Search term used in PubMed is (Gulbrandsen P OR Finset A OR Eide H OR Svennevig J OR Gerwing J OR Ofstad EH OR Kasper J OR Steinsbekk A OR Menichetti J), limited backward to 9 Feb 2018. This search returned 80+ papers, but some were already included, and some were not related to OCHER (Kasper J includes several other authors than “our” Kasper).

OCHER 2020 will take place at the usual venue on January 15-17, 2020. Deadline for abstracts is Sep 23, notification of accepted abstract will be announced Oct 4, deadline for registrations is Oct 15. The registration fee will be NOK 1700. Please download the registration form here: Registration form OCHER 2020

The keynote speakers will be two this year. Associate professor at Leiden University, Arwen Pieterse, who won the Jozien Bensing award 2018, and senior lecturer Merran Toerien, a sociologist and conversation analyst at The University of York will address the subject of decision making with patients from different angles. See preliminary program for titles, venue and other information: Invitation Program 9th OCHER 2020 – Aug 16.

This year, we have decided to add more flexibility to the program. Parallel sessions where participants may present their research project will still be the main activity. As usual, each presenter has 30 minutes, and should leave at least 20 min of these for discussion. In addition, we welcome suggestions for data sessions and symposia with time frames 30-60 minutes.

Finally, earlier participants are strongly encouraged to invite research collaborators to compete for presentation slots. The workshop will still be limited to 60 participants, but we expect and want more competition at OCHER. This is the first time we do not limit participation to those invited, but we will not make public announcements so word of mouth will be the major recruitment procedure. Presentation of a research project is still mandatory, and people who not submit abstracts will not be given priority if the number of participants exceeds the limit.

We now also have the presentations made by neurologist and conversation analyst Markus Reuber available. His presentations were about how conversation analysis can be used for diagnostic purposes when distinguishing between epilepsy and psychogeneous non-epileptic seizures, and about how one can use conversation analysis combined with artificial intelligence to build automated machines for diagnostic purposes.

Here are the presentations:

Diagnostic purposes – Reuber CA diagnostic method OCHER 2019

Automated machines – Reuber CA automated OCHER 2019