Med Info 2017 and AMEE conference report
I am writing this at Heathrow airport, en route back to New Zealand after attending two conferences. Neither of the conferences were rehabilitation related however both were relevant to the activities of the RTRU. My musings follow:
The first conference was the 16th World Congress of Medical and Health Informatics, also known as Med Info 2017, held in Hangzhou in China. About 2000 hard core “Health Informaticians” from 6 of the 7 continents were in attendance. Health Informatics is a multidisciplinary field which uses information technology to improve health care. I met people from every health profession, economists, policy makers and hard core information technologists, all united by an interest in applying rigor to the use of health information and communication technologies in health care to improve health and wellbeing.
The most rehabilitation relevant session I attended was a workshop called The Two-sided Market Perspective of e-Health where the concept being discussed boiled down to Uber for health services: the idea that an electronic platform, that acted as a neutral transactional space, could allow people with health needs to be match up with, and purchase health services. This is a relatively new concept, although I notice one of the workshop facilitators has already edited a book on the subject! The vigorous discussion highlighted the challenges of “users” not always having sufficient knowledge of services and treatments to be able to judge which “service” is the best fit for them for currently and future health outcomes, the challenges of user rating systems for services (sometimes the medicine tastes bad) and how will payers feel about allowing users/clients/patients to choose their own services in a market place. A similar system, although not digital, being developed for people in New Zealand through “Enabling good lives” where people with disabilities and their whanau identify their goals, the support they require to meet them and then services are matched to enable to them to reach these goals. I also wondered if ACC, currently going through a digital transformation, might provide an online directory of services providers for ACC clients to match with. We are likely to see significant digital overhaul of health in New Zealand in the next ten years so not beyond possibilities.
While in Hangzhou I was also lucky enough to visit the famous WestLake
and visit a Tea Village where the famous and supposedly health-giving Dragon’s Wells tea is grown.
My next conference was the Association of Medical Educators of Europe (AMEE) conference in Helsinki. A larger conference at 3700 attendees was a deep dive into Health professionals education. There was a lot of discussion of Programmatic Alignment, the concept that all aspects of the curriculum from learning outcomes, methods of teaching and learning and assessment should be congruent. So if the learning outcome is to be a “critical consumer of rehabilitation evidence base” the teaching and learning should include practice of critical appraisal and the assessment should require demonstrate of this skill. I will be reflecting this back to RTRU to prompt reflection that we are achieving this in our taught papers. I was also introduced to the curious concept of “Threshold concepts” which are an idea that, once grasped, changes the way learners think about themselves. The concept cannot be forgotten and may be emotionally difficult. An example might be the myth of black/white answers in medicine. These are the “ah-ha” moments in our learning as health professionals. I am still processing this idea but already can recognise a few in my own journey – have you had any? Also I am pondering what are the Threshold concepts in our understanding of rehabilitation. Any ideas are welcome.
While there, I had the chance to visit a bit of Helsinki and I was surprised to find an amazing berry market.
I’ve also eaten reindeer stew and elk meatballs, neither of which I think I need to do again!
I am returning home refreshed and intellectually invigorated. Now, off to that 12 hour flight…
Rebecca G.
REHB706 students on their site visit
Residential seminar time! Our REHB 706 Work Rehabilitation students, many of them experienced Vocational Rehabilitation Service or Ministry of Social Development staff, get to meet in person at the Waste Management toxic waste site for the first time. They have all been busy interacting on the Forum since the semester started, so all know each other well, despite being a big group. As you can see we have been very lucky with the weather!
