{"id":20993,"date":"2018-10-06T14:07:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-06T18:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/?p=20993"},"modified":"2023-07-12T10:02:24","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T14:02:24","slug":"cochraneforall-beyondtheroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2018\/10\/cochraneforall-beyondtheroom.html","title":{"rendered":"#CochraneForAll + #BeyondTheRoom = #PatientsIncluded on blast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Hot Chili Pipers at the Colloquium | image credit: Simon Williams Photography<\/strong><\/p>\n

I won the big platinum <\/span>#PatientsIncluded<\/span><\/a> ring (much better than brass) this year with an opportunity to attend the <\/span>Cochrane Colloquium<\/span><\/a>, the global health science and health services research meeting that happens somewhere on Planet Earth every year. This year it was hosted by Cochrane UK<\/a>, with the venue in the heart of Edinburgh, one of the best little cities in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since Cochrane UK was determined to sport the Patients Included badge, they started inviting people\/patients from around the world to think about applying for a scholarship (in UK-ese, a bursary) when the starting gun fired in the spring of this year. They have a very effective Twitter presence<\/a>, so I got pinged early. I volunteered to serve as an abstract reviewer, on the theory that every little bit (of contribution) helps, both for getting great content and demonstrating one\u2019s enthusiasm for the project. When the application process opened, I was ready, and hit the \u201cget a letter of recommendation from a Cochrane research group\u201d daily double when <\/span>Gordon Guyatt<\/span><\/a>, the father of evidence based medicine in the 20th\/21st centuries, and his entire <\/span>MAGIC team <\/span><\/a>wrote and signed my letter. THAT was a really good day around here!<\/span><\/p>\n

When word arrived that I had been awarded a scholarship, there was also news that I\u2019d won a couple of bonus rounds on travel assistance – one was a travel stipend from the Society for Participatory Medicine (thanks, guys!), and the other was being selected to be part of the <\/span>Beyond The Room<\/span><\/a> team for the conference. Here\u2019s what that was about, directly from the <\/span>Cochrane Colloquium page<\/span><\/a> inviting applications:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlso new this year is that we\u2019re putting together a team to take the event #BeyondTheRoom. This digital conference service was started in 2016 by Andr\u00e9 Tomlin from the Mental Elf who saw an opportunity to increase the reach and impact of health events by live tweeting and podcasting from them, to involve people virtually and facilitate a much more democratic conversation. The #BeyondTheRoom team will include Andr\u00e9 and his colleague Douglas Badenoch, myself and Selena from Cochrane UK, and some new recruits \u2013 perhaps it could be you!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Did someone say \u2026 podcast? Since I spent decades working as a broadcasting tech and producer, have produced podcasts for medical societies for the last decade, and started production on my own podcast \u201c<\/span>Healthcare Is HILARIOUS!<\/span><\/a>\u201d this year, this seemed like a dream gig. And it was. Not only was I able to fire on all cylinders when it came to my skill set, I got to do what I always loved doing while working as a journo all those years in TV news: talk to people doing really interesting stuff, and spread the word about what they\u2019re doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

For four days in September, my old life (net news producer) and my new life (epatient citizen scientist policy wonk storming the barricades in service of systemic shift) meshed into a perfect little machine. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are the pieces I produced, with links to listen and some notes on each one:<\/span><\/p>\n