International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH), Porto, Portugal 1-4 Sept 2018
10 September 2018About the conference
The recent International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH) brought together researchers, teachers, practitioners and policy makers from around the world to explore and to improve all aspects of communication in healthcare. This was a great conference for our researchers at the Division of Population Medicine, the Centre for Trials Research, and PRIME Centre Wales, who focus on decision-making in health to share our findings, to discover best practices and innovations in the field and to network with colleagues from around the world (I had some fascinating conversations with colleagues from as far as Australia, new Zealand and the USA).
An added bonus was that the conference was held in the beautiful and historic world heritage city of Porto in Portugal, located alongside the Douro river, known for its stately bridges, architecture and of course Port wine!
The conference was packed full of fascinating presentations focusing on shared-decision making (SDM), communication in cancer care, teaching communication skills, health promotion and intercultural and multidisciplinary communication.
Involvement from Cardiff University Researchers and Collaborators
The Centre for Trials Research, the Division of Population Medicine and PRIME Centre Wales have a track record of patient-centred care and SDM research. The PRIME leads for patient-centred care, Dr Fiona Wood and Dr Natalie Joseph-Williams, as well as Victoria Shepherd (NIHR doctoral research fellow) and I (Dr Denitza Williams, Research Associate) represented Cardiff University, School of Medicine at the event.
Oral presentations
Victoria Shepherd and I presented on Sunday the 2nd of September. Victoria talked about family members experiences of decision-making for research involving others who lack capacity to consent. I reflected on the challenges of measuring SDM in real-life clinical practice and the impact this may have on implementation of SDM. Fiona Wood and Natalie Joseph-Williams presented on Monday the 3rd of September. Fiona discussed findings of a discourse analysis focusing on when patients ask a doctor for their treatment recommendation during an SDM encounter. Natalie presented a new descriptive model of SDM derived from observing SDM in clinical practice.
Award winning poster presentation
Victoria also presented a poster discussing the written information provided to representatives of patients lacking capacity to consent to research. We were very proud when we found out that Victoria had won the research prize for her poster!
Key memorable moment
There were many memorable moments for me as a researcher passionate about improving communication between patients and health professionals, and in particular relating to women’s health. Throughout the conference we often debated the definition of SDM, as well as whether it can actually ever be truly captured by any of the current measurement tools.
However, a phrase that I will never forget is ‘Lubrication for my soul’. This phrase was repeated throughout the plenary session delivered by Meg Gaines. Meg was diagnosed with ovarian cancer when her children were only six months and three years old and she was told she only had months to live, absolutely devastating. She remarkably fought for pioneering treatment and survived. She spoke candidly and openly about her journey as a gynaecological cancer patient on the brink of death, and how throughout her ordeal she was desperate for health professionals to see her as a ‘whole’ person and not a sum of anatomical parts. Hence, she repeatedly used the phrase ‘I need lubrication for my soul, not my body’. This session really made me reflect on the need for multi-disciplinary care and research. We need to think of patients as whole people and reflect this in practice and research.
What next?
Our working group specialising in patient centred care and SDM will continue our research focusing on SDM. We are planning to have a number of new publications released soon. Victoria Shepherd is continuing her PhD Fellowship focusing on proxy decision making for individuals who lack capacity to consent to research.
Gallery of presenters
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- September 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- November 2021
- September 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- February 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- December 2017
- October 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- October 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016