At the end of March, the Cerner European Collaboration Forum (ECF) brought together 300+ attendees from over 16 countries. Due to the ongoing advice and regulations around the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was hosted in a hybrid format, meaning that most attendees joined us virtually and a small number attended in person.
Offering both attendance styles ensured that attendees were able to get involved in a setting where they felt most comfortable. Whether in person or hybrid, healthcare professionals and industry leaders came together to collaborate and learn from each other over two days packed with content and networking opportunities.
"The hybrid model was very effective, and it worked well for me to attend one day in person and virtually for the other day."
One thing that stood out, no matter how attendees joined us, were the conversations and reflections made on how we are working together to revolutionise healthcare around the world. There were lots of engaging discussions about what the next stage of the journey could look like, alongside this year’s theme of One patient. One community. One world.
This thread was woven throughout the event’s programme, which saw speakers from around the world share their successes and challenges with the audience, celebrating the achievements and insights gained through the first wave of healthcare digitalisation and network building. The content also encouraged attendees to look forward to the next era of digitalisation and think about what the next steps are for their systems and organisations to take advantage of the latest available innovations.
"I loved the silent session – maybe more of these as technology allowed an in-person experience without the background noise."
Inspiring keynote sessions
In David Feinberg’s keynote on the future of healthcare and IT, his assertion that we need to focus on fixing the EHR really hit home with all attendees. Putting the focus onto human factors more than technological ones isn't just the way to go with Cerner Millennium either – David stated that one of his ambitions was for future conferences to have "no noise" about technology and purely focus on the needs of patients, communities and clinicians.
Integrated care was a key phrase in many other ECF22 sessions, as was promoting health equity throughout populations. Amongst the multitude of other topics, we heard about mobile working, positive patient ID, real-time working, speech-enabled input, clinician burnout and more in a mix of live and pre-recorded sessions available on Hubb, the event’s online platform.
ECF22 welcomed speakers from the UK and further afield – including a live link-up with Canada. We heard from clients, partners, patients and some of the best experts available – our Cerner associates, some of whom were giving live demonstrations in our Solutions Gallery across both days of the event.
Immersive Solutions Gallery
In between sessions and at the end of the day, delegates had an opportunity to chat with experts from Cerner and partner organisations to explore and interact with the latest innovations and solutions that will fuel healthcare’s next chapter – all showcased in the ECF22 Solutions Gallery.
Overall, the noises coming out of ECF22 have been overwhelmingly positive. There's still the opportunity to catch up on sessions via Hubb if you registered but couldn't watch live – or just want to relive the experience – and once that's done and dusted, it'll be time to start thinking about our plan for ECF23...
What next?
Make sure you follow us on Twitter to find out about further collaboration opportunities and how to start building value-based partnerships with us, our clients and our partners today. If you weren’t able to join us at ECF this year or if you’re already looking forward to another insightful event, don’t forget to save the date for Cerner Health Conference (CHC) in Kansas City between 17-19 October 2022.
