Last Monday I was the day host at a conference about citizen-driven research called Beyond RCT. RCT’s are Randomized Controlled Trials, a method that is often used in medical research. The goal of the conference was to expand the scope of research, and to find ways to include findings by patients and non-medical professionals into research. In this way, by sharing more knowledge and understanding each other better, we should be able to find new ways of helping patients to feel better faster.
I was just the host of the day, I announced the speakers, held the space, and with the help of my co-host Floortje van der Linden we guarded time and tried to keep all the activities within the time limit. In the afternoon Floortje and me organised a World Café session to facilitate knowledge sharing and discussion between participants. But although my task was small and mostly facilitating, I felt very proud and happy to be able to help out these ambitious, hard-working and brave people in their quest for better wellness and health for everyone.
The conference was organised by Inspire2Live, Platform for patients and food and the Dutch research institute TNO. Want to know more about this subject? Read this article in de Volkskrant about patients as researchers of their own illnesses.
Unfortunately I was too busy to make some good pictures from the World Café Process, but in general I can say that I was once again surprised at how well this method works. We had 10 tables, and because the audience was so diverse (consisting of about 80 patients, scientific researchers, entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, and more) we were able to have very rich knowledge sharing sessions. Because the organisation of the conference had appointed table hosts for all the tables, we will get a rich harvest from all the discussions. The organisations will send out summaries of all the tables & other conference outcomes to all participants.
I’m really proud to have been part of this movement for one day. I expect many ambitious outcomes for this tribe of people! It reminds me of the talk and book of Seth Godin about Tribes:https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
I feel like I was present at the start of one of these tribes. Fabulously led by Gaston Remmers of Inspire2Live & Platform Patient en Voeding. I expect many great things of this group.
Oh yeah, and I want to say that I found out about Tribes through the book of Martijn Aslander and Erwin Witteveen, called ‘Nooit Af, Permanent Bèta’. I’m telling you, it’s a must-read.
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