OCHER

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

OCHER 2019 finished today very successfully, and we have here the privilege to publish the powerpoint presentations (in pdf format) made by two of the keynote speakers, Ellen Smets and Saul J. Weiner. You will find the presentations here:

Smets – Smets Communication skills training state of the art OCHER 2019

Smets – Smets Communication skills training future OCHER 2019

Weiner – Weiner 4C Coding System OCHER 2019

Weiner – Weiner Communication Change in Large Healthcare Organization OCHER 2019

Invitation mail has now been sent to all previous participants at OCHER. Feel free to forward the invitation to research collaborators. Note that this year we will introduce a modest registration fee of NOK 1500. As soon as you have completed the registration form and sent it to the address on the form, Akershus University Hospital will issue an invoice. If your institution pays, the institution’s invoice address would be our preference. If you are more people from the same institution, it would be good to know if we can issue one invoice for all of you. The deadline for the registration form is September 15, while the deadline for payment and abstract is October 31. Welome to another inspiring workshop!

The German Bertelsmann Stiftung (Bertelsmann Foundation) has recently issued a comprehensive report about national implementation of shared decision-making in nine leading countries. The report was authored by Angela Coulter, a distinguished researcher and one of the pioneers of the field. The report builds on an overview paper published in Zeitschrift für Evidenz, Fortbildung und Qualität in Gesundheitswesen (ZEFQ) prepared ahead of the 9th international conference on shared decision-making (Lyon 2017). OCHER members contributed to that paper. For communication researchers in general and those interested in SDM particularly the report provides a must-read overview of the state of affairs in this field around the world in 2017. You find it here.