Concluding comments and general thoughts
The HC conference and the exhibition seem much quieter and less stimulating than previous years. Delegate and exhibitor numbers are down and there is little of the “excitement” of previous years (perhaps I’ve just been too many times).
This may be because everyone is so busy with implementation, and may also reflect a recognition that what has been bought is not (easily or soon) going to be deliveing the benefits many had dreamed of.
The non participation of Connecting for Health has been very obvious, and seems to have been a missed opportunity to share lessons from one area of the country to another. Almost all the speakers seemed to be very careful to “toe the party line” and any criticisms which were made were couched very carefully and not made explicit.
There also doesn’t seem to have been the innovations which have been a feature of this event in the past. I feel that next years conference (19th to 21st march 2007) will need speakers and participants who are willing to challenge the status Quo and bring the spark back into HC.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
Those active in health informatics, in whichever cluster, home country, linked authority (Isle of Man, Southern Ireland etc) or foreign visitor wants to know what is happening across the UK. If home countries are not willing to use the HC congress as a direct feed for information, perhaps they could at least consider mechanisms to give us on the BCS HI Community information stand a breifing document that tells us what they have produced over the last year and how the reports / position statements etc can be readily accessed after the event??