for some years now, people have expressed interest in a live openEHR event. There is no doubt it is overdue! One nice place for such an event happens to be available for 2012: Lake Bled, Slovenia, sometime in the period mid September - mid October - if we act fast. Nothing has been booked: the purpose of this post is for you to decide if you like the idea, and vote on the doodle poll below, so we can determine interest and dates. PLEASE RESPOND AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS, TIME IS SHORT FOR BOOKING.
Possibilities for a conference are as below (it’s a compendium of ideas from people with a slight allergy to wall-to-wall presentations inside a hotel!) I have run these ideas past the interim openEHR board, and a few other experienced openEHR-ites, and the initial response was positive. There is a poll below to register your interest.
LOCATION: Lake Bled, Slovenia, one of the jewels of central Europe, easy to get to, not too expensive; touristic info
CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES:
max 3 days of ‘conference’ activity, with keynotes & organised presentations, many self-organised workshops and hang-outs
keynotes: 2 or 3 international speakers
hang-outs could be in the hotels, but also cafes, by the lake shore, or in picnic fields
topics would include all levels of openEHR-related work, including
clinical modelling,
governance,
programming & solutions in every language,
decision support,
model merging for 13606 revision,
possible Clinical Information Modelling Initiative (CIMI) meetings/presentations
using archetypes to make coffee
etc
academic side: it seems like a good opportunity to get some nice papers together. They would be published in a special issue of one of the existing journals, possibly ejHI.
there would be significant opportunity for the community to self-organise events & activities leading up to the conference.
SOCIAL:
participants encouraged to bring partners, kids and to enjoy the beautiful surroundings
one conference dinner
interspersed with the conference activities, there would be some organised outdoor activities, and free time for self-organised things like canoing, sight-seeing, tourist visits to Ljubljana, the caves, etc
we would organise some good cultural stuff, including live music and maybe a dance night etc
the first day of the conference would be 80% organised social activities and meeting people, no presentations at all (Joaquim Dudeck did this years ago at a CDA conference in Berlin, and it worked fantastically well - all the attendees more or less knew each other by the time any actual conferencing got underway).
COSTS:
we have done some pricing, and we think the attendance price would be around €500 / head
air-travel to Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia) and then to lake Bled is generally in the €100 per head range if booked ahead from European destinations.
hotel costs are in a wide range, from €70 / night single, 80-90 twin, to €150+/night for lake view doubles and suites.
The organisers would provide guidance for people who want to make a proper holiday out of it and stay one or both weekends (in fact, we might make one weekend part of the conf)
There is a large contingent of local openEHR interest in Slovenia, and many friendly people there who will make visitors welcome and help with organisation (of course there will be a professional company running the event, an organising committee, and so on).
Those of you who get involved in conferences will know that there is not much time left for 2012 - about 8 months lead time is needed. We would look for sponsorship to help cover costs.
WHAT WE NEED TO DO NOW (AND QUICKLY):
If the above sounds interesting, a window is open for this Lake Bled, mid-Sep → mid-Oct. I have created an online poll to gauge interest:
please check contiguous days that could work for you as a conference week - CHECK ALL DAYS OPEN FOR YOU. It’s a bit annoying, seems you have to individually check each date, but we would need this data to determine the best date
If you want to be anonymous, no problem - please put something like “Sweden #14”, “Brazil #38”, etc
OR… if you like the idea but don’t like the location or timing, please say something on the clinical or technical list in response to this post.
THE INTENDED OUTCOME OF THE POLL IS TO DETERMINE:
how many people (roughly) are interested, and would come sometime in the period available
which week should be booked for the conference, since this has to be locked in very soon
One variable that could also be changed is duration. Some people might want more of a short working meeting - as far as I can see, there is no way to include this idea on the doodle poll; please indicate on the lists.
If you like the conference idea, but can’t participate in the above proposal, or would like some other proposal, please post you ideas instead on the lists.
I'd support such a meeting. I may not be part of the active openEHR
community, but I certainly believe in the power of face to face
meetings, next to being a virtual community. To only be virtual has some
serious disadvantages..
This is also the main reason why the HL7 RIM implementers community
mainly meets face to face, instead of relying on teleconferences. It's
all about the networking [plug: the next meeting will be in Sweden,
joint with openEHR implementers: http://wiki.hl7.org/index.php?title=RIMBAA_201203_Agenda]
Back to the openEHR event: if it doesn't conflict with some other stuff
I'll be attending .. so I did fill in the doodle poll.
I’m not an expert on that kind of thing, but getting video of main sessions should be possible. Maybe we can do some live streaming… I’ll ask about this.
I’d love to see this timed to be close to another event for those of us who have to travel from the other side of the world. MIE2012 is occurring at the end of August, so a slightly earlier September date for this gathering might be more conducive to some to travel the distance/amortise the expense.
I think TC215 is presently scheduled for week of Sep 24 in Vienna (subject to final confirmation). You should probably try to avoid clashing with that given 13606 overlap - but could aim to follow it.
Richard DH
I think this is a very positive initiative. In my capacity as the HL7 Croatia Chair, but perhaps even more importantly, ISHEP (www.ishep.org) Conference Programme Committee Chair, we would be interested in exploring the opportunities to combining efforts and supporting this event.
Few important remarks - ISHEP is a regional two day conference that attracts about 100 experts from Slovenia, Croatia and neighboring countries, and discusses best practices around eHealth implementations. It is very much hands on practice, targeted workshops and implementation type of discussions, where the aim is to raise awareness and knowledge with local communities on European and world wide best practices on eHealth implementation. It is usually done under auspices of two Ministries of Health, and supported by professional community such as HL7, Croatian and Slovenian Society of Medical Informatics, EFMI, etc. The conference usually takes place in September-October time frame, and for the last two years it has been done in Croatia, whilst the preliminary agreement for 2012 is Slovenia.
I think program-wise we would be able to combine the two efforts. The first day is a plenary one, where we have keynotes, selected presentations and panel discussion, whereas the 2nd day is several parallel workshops. If we would combine the efforts, we could set up quite a powerful plenary and define several parallel sessions on 2nd day (e.g. RIMBAA? CIMI? EHR Certification?).
Please check out the ISHEP web site for further information, and let me know your initial thoughts.
Thanks, all the best
Miroslav Koncar
Miroslav Koncar PhD | Oracle Healthcare Business Development Director, HL7 Croatia Chair
Oracle Eastern and Central Europe, Middle East and Africa
Budmanijeva 1/IV, 10000 Zagreb | Croatia
Mobile: +385 99 3212253 | Phone: +385 1 6323206
Email: miroslav.koncar@oracle.com
This is a very interesting and attractive suggestion. I have looked at
the ISHEP 2011 content and there is certainly a degree of overlap of
interest, particular from national agencies, on which we can build.
Sharing resources and sponsor input would certainly make much more
sense than accidentally finding ourselves in competition.
My only concern might be, from an openEHR perspective, that we lose
some clear community definition, particularly as this is a new venture
for us. I am sure with careful planning and marketing, the identity of
each party/conference could be maintained.
Ian
Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com
Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director/Clinical Knowledge Editor openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org
thanks for the comments. The good side, or an opportunity if you will, is that we fully control the content and the format of ISHEP conference. Basically, if the idea would be welcomed by the openEHR community, we would further welcome experts from this group to join the organization board and programme committee. In that way we would be able to leverage from the network, and hopefully secure good speakers on the panel session, as well as workshop leaders on the 2nd day. All other details - proper labeling, organizational support from not-for-profit organizations and Government bodies, sponsors, etc - will be orchestrated in the process.
I think this could be interesting to consider as well. It is a requirement for us i think to make this work for ‘openEHR’, since I think most people in the community would agree with the need for a face to face meeting. Having said that, I think we certainly want to have a) very practical workshops and b) sessions / workshops on e-health topics to which openEHR is connected, e.g. 13606 convergence, decision support using AQL and service models for the EHR, openEHR/CDA transformation (to name a few).
Obviously this conference can’t replace other conferences that are completely open in terms of what kind of models & standards underpin the implementations. If you think an openEHR-flavoured ISHEP conference would make sense, let’s talk further.
I do like the idea but I would prefer that each conference has its own
very clear identity, albeit that some sessions could be shared, along
with venue etc. A couple of the MIE conferences have operated this way
with local informatics conferences being co-hosted/located with the
European event, with some joint sessions but otherwise a very clear
individual agenda and focus.
Ian
Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com
Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director/Clinical Knowledge Editor openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org
We could not get sponsorship for the conference, which is a shame. For that
reason it looks like that will not happen until we have Associates and some
core funding.
I would like to organise some Google handouts at different times each month
- probably 3/month suiting Asia, Europe/Africa and the Americas. Would
others be interested in meeting for a chat every month, with Video. We could
use GoToWebinar for some more formal gatherings.
