Virtual conferences: the new norm

Originally scheduled to take place in Sibenik, Croatia, my first-hand experience of this world heritage site's mountains, ancient fortresses and crystal clear waters was replaced by a (no less equally impressive) screensaver.

Before participating, I was told by a wise colleague that despite the virtual platform, it was important to maintain some of the experience of an in-person event. As this was an international conference, I duly stocked my bathroom with miniatures, set up a buffet for my breakfast each morning, and finished each evening by watching the news in a language I didn’t understand - at points it was so real I had to pinch myself.
 
As to the conference, being virtual, recorded and accessible at all hours of the day, the opportunity to dive into presentations, exhibitions and workshops was neigh on unlimited. And dive in I did. Even a week later I’m still catching up on sessions I missed first time round. If this binge has taught me one thing, it’s that integration is a hard one to break down, no pun intended. 

Over the course of the last month I have heard presenters discuss insights ranging from the financial implications of integrating services for those with substance abuse disorders, how integrated IT platforms are helping Catalonia to improve discharge, which are the best tools to use when evaluating an intervention, and the importance of a project management team in sustaining an integration programme over the long-term. 

These applications exist at the national, regional, organisational and clinical service level. Therefore, integration ends up meaning different things to different people, and so finding that example that you can learn from and apply to your own context does become more challenging. 

However, what I’ve noticed is that every intervention does have common themes, and, as I was reminded during the closing ceremony last week, the big one is co-production. From here all other important factors flow - communication: how and to whom are you communicating?; co-location: where and why?; education and outreach: to whom, from whom, with whom and by whom? 

By definition, integrated care is about bringing people together; if you’re not bringing everyone together before you start, you’re not integrating. This is simplistic, I know, but I think it gets the point across rather nicely. 

Now, call me cynical, but one thing I was left wanting to hear more about was the challenges. The first hand nitty gritty. When did it get hard, unpleasant and make you want to pull your hair out;  how did you resolve it; what are the factors you considered before engaging with a resistant stakeholder; how did you navigate a change in the political or financial landscape? 

I've already admitted that the scope of this work can make it very contextual, but the actions during these periods of challenge are what need to be - but cannot always be - planned for, and so the insights and lessons in these instances can transcend application. After all, your problem shared is our problem halved.
 
This additional insight of course may have been hampered by the teething problem of hosting an event virtually for the first time. Overall, the unfettered access was a huge positive in my book, but no longer being able to hang around at the end of a session to ask the presenter that specific question you have, or ‘unexpectedly’ bumping into them when you have thought of a better one, is a downside to the virtual experience. I would have liked more time throughout the day dedicated to the exhibitions and poster presentations; with such a packed programme, that hour in the middle of the day was really a necessity for getting away from the screen and the eye strain that it induces.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my first integrated care conference, the experiences and perspectives of such a diverse range of speakers leaves me with significant food for thought and the multiple applications to our health system will mean I’ll probably be sending speculative emails to other delegates for some weeks to come.