Past Conferences

ISCOME 2015 Conference: "The Golden Bridge: Communication and Patient Safety"

The ISCOME™ 2015 Conference, entitled “The Golden Bridge: Communication and Patient Safety,” was organized with the objective to facilitate such needed interdisciplinary collaborations. The conference gathered four renowned keynote speakers who shed innovative perspectives onto the role of communication competence in patient safety (Brian Spitzberg, Ph.D., USA), the importance of health outcomes research in the frame of clinician-patient interactions (Richard Street jr., Ph.D., USA), the role of communication in human factors science (Riccardo Tartaglia, M.D., Italy), and horizons for patient safety (Sir Liam Donaldson, MD, UK). Furthermore, ISCOME™ invited 22 experts and scholars from diverse academic backgrounds onto two conference theme-related roundtable discussion panels, which focused on the status quo and heuristic interdisciplinary directions in cross-professional and provider-patient communication and patient safety. A closing discussion panel with a renowned cast of speakers spotlighted interdisciplinary reflections on the past, present and future of patient safety in Europe and beyond.

A total of 135 participants from 17 countries across the globe attended the ISCOME™ 2015 conference in Montecatini Terme. Numerous participants attended the three featured ISCOME™ 2015 conference workshops on second victims (Albert Wu, M.D., USA), handover skills (Giulio Toccafondi, Sara Albolino, GCR, Italy), and evidence-based assessments and improvements in patient-provider communication (John Øvretveit, Ph.D., Sweden). During an intensive 3-day post-conference workgroup, the invited speakers developed conference-theme-related research on three tracks: (1) knowledge sharing, (2) data-sharing, and (3) new knowledge generation. The initial results of the conference will be published in a special section in BMJ Quality & Medicine across two separate journal issues in 2016, and it will be entitled “Contributions of Communication Research to Patient Safety.” Furthermore, the research workgroup set an agenda to pursue numerous interdisciplinary research projects beyond this special section, including several books and grant proposals. To browse the original conference website with all its features, please click here.

(IS)COME 2013 Conference: “Communicating Medical Error”

The grant-funded ISCOME 2013 Conference (formerly called “COME 2013: Communicating Medical Error”) was organized by Prof. Dr. Annegret Hannawa (Institute of Communication and Health, University of Lugano, Switzerland) in collaboration with the Swiss Centro Stefano Franscini. The conference gathered three renowned keynote speakers, 16 invited experts and numerous scholars and practitioners from diverse academic disciplines across the world. The conference program was organized around the three topic areas: (1) error prevention and intervention; (2) error identification, analysis, reporting and correction; and (3) error disclosure. The COME 2013 conference offered a unique platform for scholars from across the world to disseminate the latest research findings and to establish a global, interdisciplinary roadmap for future research on the intersections between communication science and patient safety. The result of the conference were published in an invited special issue in Journal of Public Health Research in December 2013, entitled “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Medical Error.” The special issue is accessible open-access at www.jphres.org. To browse the original conference website with all its features, please visit www.come.usi.ch.