OCHER

Eirik H. Ofstad developed over the years 2010-2o15 the Decision Identification and Classification Taxonomy for Use in Medicine (DICTUM) in his doctoral work. This tool aims to identify all medical decisions that emerge as statements in physician-patient interactions. The taxonomy operates with two dimensions, the type of decision, of which there are ten kinds, and the temporal nature of decisions, of which there are three different ones, those made ahead of the interaction (preformed), those made in the interaction (present), and those that are conditional, that is, expressed as possible to make in the future depending on the course. You will find the DICTUM codebook on the resources page on this website.

We have received more than 30 abstracts and more than 40 registrations for this year’s OCHER conference, and the quality of the abstracts are very promising. Participants are from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Norway. You will find the program here: detailed-program-6th-ocher-2017.

Vikki Entwistle is professor of health services research at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and has done extensive research on patient participation in decision making (besides many other important engagements). J. Randall Curtis is a professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is also an adjunct professor of Bioethics and Humanities and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Professor Curtis has provided us with the titles of his two lectures in the 6th research workshop on January 11-13. They are as follows: “Measuring and improving communication about palliative care: What have we learned and where do we go from here?” and “Communication and decision-making with families of critically ill patients: Lessons from the successes and failures”. They are well placed in the core of what we are working with in the OCHER community.

The 6th annual OCHER workshop has been scheduled to January 11-13, 2017. Save the dates. Venue and format will be as usual. An invitation letter will be sent out in August. If you are interested, but have not previously attended OCHER workshops, please contact Pål Gulbrandsen.

The conference is in Scandinavian language so the invitation follows in Danish:

Konferencen afholdes på Hindsgavl Slot i Danmark den 9-10. juni 2016. Kunsten At Kommunikere 2016 fokuserer på, hvordan vi som sundhedsvæsen bliver bedre til at interagere med mennesket, når vi kommunikerer med patienter og pårørende. Til konferencen vil vi sammen forsøge at finde svar på spørgsmål som: Hvad er sundhed for patienten, for den sundhedsprofessionelle og for andre aktører i sundhedsvæsenet og hvilken forståelse tager vi udgangspunkt i, når vi kommunikerer? Hvilke nye roller opstår i disse år for de sundhedsprofessionelle og for patienten, og hvilke nye kompetencer er der brug for? Hvad kræver det af kommunikationen, når vi vil inddrage patienten som menneske? Hvordan udforsker vi patientens potentiale og aktiverer dennes ressourcer bedst muligt?

Det er anden gang, at Kunsten At Kommunikere løber af stablen og som i 2014 sker det i et inspirerende miljø, hvor der er plads til dialog og refleksion. Der er denne gang mulighed for at deltage i workshops på dag 2, hvor stærke profiler indenfor kommunikation og coaching vil være facilitatorer. Mere information om konferencen og om tilmelding her.

BMJ Open yesterday published Eirik Hugaas Ofstad’s paper on a new taxonomy of medical decisions. The taxonomy is called DICTUM, and represents a valuable instrument for content classification in videotapes from medical encounters. Ofstad’s thesis, published in 2015, in which a preliminary version of this paper was part, was judged by the adjudicating committee as “a work that will stand out as one of the most important contributions in this field of inquiry.” The paper is available here, and DICTUM may be accessed by contacting Ofstad at eirikofstad@gmail.com.

You can find the program from the OCHER 2016 workshop here. The workshop had 45 participants, around 10 were newcomers, and we saw increasing participation from Sweden and Denmark.

Previously, we have announced professor Anna Lindström from Uppsala University as a keynote lecturer in the 5th OCHER workshop on January 13-15. Her lecture title is: “Conversation analytic Research in Scandinavian healthcare contexts”. In addition, two of our own seniors will provide keynotes. Senior researcher Jennifer Gerwing will give the talk: “Talking matters: linking contemporary dialogue theory to research on clinical communication”. The title of professor Arnstein Finset’s lecture will be: “Analysis of trouble talk in Medical consultations: implications for communication skills training”.

Professor Anna Lindström at Uppsala university, Sweden, has been confirmed as speaker for the OCHER Conference at Thon Hotel Triaden, January 13-15. She is a professor of lingustics and social interaction, and has previously participated at OCHER in 2014. We are still working on confirming the second keynote speaker in the upcoming event. Also, please not that we have decided that the dates for OCHER 2017 will be January 11-13.