Abstract
Dear Colleagues,
Today, to be convergent is to be innovative. Experience has taught us that advances emanate from the most surprising cradles. Innovation is progressively contingent on blending an infinite variety of skills, principles and disciplines. Imaginative solutions originate from bold combinations of concepts and competencies, which disrupt barriers. Convergence is the necessary catalyst for commencing dialogue between different specialists to drive networking and build engagement for future success.
Medical societies and specialties are grappling to maintain their identity and raison d’être, in this fast-paced world. Technology is drastically altering the world in which we live. Since 2000, our attention span has deteriorated from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, indicating that the modern age has rendered us less capable of paying attention than a goldfish.
While Generation X obsessed with tearing down the entrenched institutions of the preceding Baby-Boomer generation, the Generation Y “Millennials” are the ones tasked with rebuilding from the rubble and returning order to the resulting chaos.
However, 1-in-2 Millennials are unable to concentrate or stay focused on tasks, which is particularly concerning for medical training and continuous professional development. There are serious implications too for how we organise our work lives and family time, with 1-in-3 physicians acknowledging they are unable to make the best use of their time, forcing them to work late evenings and/or weekends. Twitter has reduced our communication to less than 140 characters. In fact, words themselves can appear too bothersome and so some of our conversations are now condensed to emojis.
So how do we as a society, and as a profession, adapt to this changing world so as best to serve our current and future members? For one we need to acknowledge the influx of technology into our day-to-day lives and concede that its here to stay. So rather than rebel, we need to adapt, embrace technology and use these innovations to improve our lives and those of our members and patients. We must engage with colleagues and medical specialties that embrace innovation, and be inclusive to and open to group practice.
Technology has enabled us to free up time. If we cannot concentrate on repetitive tasks, perhaps it’s because we don’t need to. Robotics and automation can do this for us so that we can concentrate on the enjoyable things and those tasks that require our individual skill. We don’t need to spend hours sifting through books in the library to identify that elusive diagnosis anymore, or leave a patient’s bedside to look-up a drug formulation or view an MRI; we can do it instantaneously on our Smart Phones. This is the era of in time knowledge, multi-tasking and dual-screening. “It’s our new ‘communication reality.’”
While as individuals we have let technology insidiously worm its way into our very being, as medical societies we have been far less receptive. This needs to change and societies need to realign their identities and redefine their roles in this modern world. Knowledge is power, but only if it is the correct knowledge. As information flows through the internet, it is unfiltered and can therefore be unaccredited and dangerously unreliable. “Information is not intelligence” (Albert Einstein). Societies have a key role to play in ensuring that the integrity of the digital information reaching our members is bona fide and scientifically correct. We have a role to play, not only as gatekeepers but also as purveyors of knowledge as we establish guidelines and core outcome sets, and facilitate scientific forums and clinical research networks. However, there is no sense in us providing filters if there are too many societies, so that societies themselves need to be filtered. Instead, we need to combine forces for the greater good. This is one great advantage of technology, the way it renders the globe one big world-wide-web. We can interact in real time with anyone, anywhere, at any times through safe on-line forums and educational sites. Advanced University platforms have adapted to this. On-line posting and blended learning mean that we no longer need to leave the comfort of our home to get a postgraduate degree. If universities can do it, then surely societies can, as agile, cardiovascular specialists, who pride ourselves on being early adopters when it comes to innovative cutting edge therapies? We need to converge into a strong, smart young body and find imaginative ways to use information technology to embrace the future.
The exponential growth of live events, media noise, on-line streaming and virtual reality has fractured audience attention and contributed to ever widening arcs of apathy. The concept of “hybrid meetings”, combining live cases, simulation and didactic experiences, is meaningless in 2017. This is like the concept of “new media” that disappeared only a few years ago to describe the evolving newspaper print media. Digitalisation completely reshaped the news media with on-line news updates being streamlined to our phones in real-time; we no longer have the need to purchase newspapers. Digitalisation has irreparably transformed every industry and blue-sky technology is evolving rapidly, and for the most part positively. Online crowd-sourcing platforms, although pricey initially, are worth the investment because they will seamlessly pull together everyone’s ideas, curate them, and integrate them into futuristic programs.
Disruptive innovation in conferences is well talked about. Those who strategically organise future conferences are probing a few scenarios such as: Will face-to-face events become old-fashioned? Will people connect via social media, holograms and other technologies instead of at live events? If live events endure, how will they be transformed and how will they look? Delegates are inquiring: “Why should I join a specific meeting?” Corporate decision makers want to appreciate: “Why should we sponsor a particular event?” Association directors ponder: “Why do we exist?” From the meeting planners’ perspective, they’re speculating: “Why would today’s preoccupied, unfocused and fuzzy attendee engage with our program?”
With technology impacting every industry, where everything and everyone is connected, there’s a growing excitement around converging event speakers, experiences, augmented virtual reality and digital content. It is becoming increasingly possible to facilitate exploration of commonalities in creative problem-solving in today’s era of global connectivity.
Multidisciplinary programming that vitalises both the personal and professional development of attendees is the way forward. We need to integrate blue-sky technology and digital data, to make the real-life experiences more highly personable and immersive. This kinetic hybridisation of the delegate user experience marries online and offline engagement. The idea is to combine business and creativity and provide content that integrates education and entertainment. We need to assist attendees to plug into an organisation’s messaging in more ways, at more times, in more places.
We envisage that future meetings will distribute the online presentation previews before the event so attendees view them, get enthusiastic and engage. Attendees can then convene in a comfortable space with their favourite speaker and 30 other people who have self-selected to be in that particular session, through an online crowd-sourcing platform. Conference goers will actively engage, rather than passively listen. They get to roll up their sleeves for the designated 90 minutes, to have a high-level seminar with key opinion leaders and 30 thought-provoking people around the room.
The Future is great! We must unite and embrace all aspects of technology because excellence is not competitive.
Prof Sherif Sultan
President of ISVS