key: cord-0774753-eb876wq7
authors: nan
title: Six years in pursuit of achieving the EACH aims and still
date: 2020-10-31
journal: Patient Education and Counseling
DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.08.007
sha: 261f27241956336be53c3f6c93ddedb0dd1aab25
doc_id: 774753
cord_uid: eb876wq7

nan

At the ICCH conference in Amsterdam in 2014, I was elected to become president of EACH and by the time this article appears I will have stepped down. Since my election six interesting and very busy years have passed. EACH has hosted the ICCH conferences in 2016 (Heidelberg) and 2018 (Porto) and an online conference in September 2020 partly replacing the ICCH in Vienna. EACH, initiated new, smaller events with a focus on interactivity and workshops in the lapse years between conferences, twice in London (2015, 2017) and once in Leiden (2019). The subcommittees rEACH, tEACH and pEACH continued their work in their respective areas of interest, developing all kinds of tools and materials, delivering a variety of courses in healthcare communication teaching, research and policy throughout the world and more active networking activities were developed. And it was very exciting to develop and start implementing a strategic plan for the fi rst time in EACH's history. 1 Who could have thought of a pandemic suddenly appearing and turning our world upside down? Nevertheless this is what happened in the past six months and it is not over yet. Covid19 not only has implications for all of us personally and in our every-day work, but also for EACH.

Covid19.Communication with patients has changed and poses many challenges for patients and professionals. How can we best manage 'the new normal' and communicate with patients with the virus as well as in 'usual care'. Many changes were also required in teaching communication skills. All these aspects and many more have led to new research questions, require development of new best practices and guidelines, and training. This is core business for EACH and we can use our network to confront these new challenges. I could never have imagined a challenge like this when I started my journey in the EACH leadership.

The aims of EACH however have not changed. We still need to work on achieving optimal healthcare communication for people all around the world. Most of the plans of EACH are still the same although some adjustment here and there might be needed, but let us not forget the big picture. I could discuss my EACH-journey from many angles in this refl ection, however I have chosen collaboration and co-creation as focus because I think we can still do better there.

Our PEC publication 'EACH on the barricades for change now?' 2 refl ected our worry about the slow progress in the standard of communication in healthcare and we set out steps to try and have more impact in a newly developed strategic plan. The fi rst steps focused on a limited number of key areas: membership, benefi ts for members and more visibility: more presence on social media and a better website. For membership that included a change in structure in an attempt to attract more members from a larger variety of countries and constituencies. Our new membership structure has more variety in fees for different groups, and includes the option of institutional reduced membership. So far this has not helped to attract more members. A question that comes to mind is what kind of members are we aiming for, and is EACH offering them enough? Having been a practicing family physician for over thirty years myself, one of the things that struck me in EACH was that so few of our members are practicing healthcare professionals (HCP), and that made me wonder why. Perhaps EACH is not well-known enough among clinicians outside of our organisation? I myself stumbled upon EACH relatively late in my career by chance… clinicians did not seem to fi nd their way into EACH easily. EACH was not active on social media and our website was also not that attractive, easy to navigate and interactive.

The new website is now live and has the great potential with elements mentioned that were missing before. The Covid19 resources section is a nice demonstration about how it is updated regularly; it is viewed and used a lot, and includes forums to share resources, allow interactivity and exchange of views and materials.

But it is probably not enough to attract more practicing healthcare professionals. Most HCP are members of their own professional organisations, and becoming member of a communication organisation is farfetched when they can get what they want locally or from their professional homes. The only reason for joining a communication association such as EACH would be fi nding important benefi ts they cannot fi nd in their own institutions and professional organisations. What could these be, how do we fi nd out? A recent survey, sent out through EACH members was only fi lled out by 16 HCP who all confi rmed they would appreciate EACH offering courses for HCP and showed a broad range of needs. More collaboration however, discussion and a thorough needs assessment together with practicing professionals and their professional organisations could lead to a better picture of where our help would be really welcome and what we could offer that they do not fi nd in their own professional homes. If that leads to more insight into true communication needs of a variety of professional groups, we can co-create courses and products that really meet the needs of the professionals working in clinical practice. This requires fi nding people in EACH, as well as in these professional organisations, who are willing to dedicate time and attention to keep these collaborations going, who can connect with their members from the inside and are made responsible for development and delivery of products together. And who can also involve local policymakers and patients in this co-creation. This will help with the implementation of effective healthcare communication 'in the real world' in many places. 3 We have made a few careful steps in the direction of collaboration these past few years but they have been ad-hoc and opportunistic, and depend on personal contacts and individual requests coming in occasionally. Some have been turned into successful collaborative projects. That is wonderful but does not guarantee follow up, and stops whenever that person is no longer interested, prioritises time or steps down altogether. One example which looked promising and still can be is the collaboration with WONCA, the world organisation of family doctors. When asked for input on communication and mental health EACH and WONCA connected and co-created courses in communication and management of mental health problems. These courses were adjusted to the local contexts and co-delivered successfully a few times in different places. The model, as well as the materials, are very rich. It could be used not only for communication and mental health for family doctors but can easily be adjusted to include other health problems, and to be used for training of a variety of healthcare professionals in many countries throughout the world. To ensure these projects continue and new ones are initiated we need to fi nd dedicated people who make time to work on these collaborations with medical and other health professions' organisations; who coordinate needs assessments; who help with fi nding the people in the relevant organisations to help adjust and deliver the newly co-created courses which meet these needs. This is just as important as before Covid 19 because in these diffi cult times needs will vary over the world and for different professionals as well.

I think EACH should take a lead to coordinate these collaborations. I also hope that you, readers of PEC who are interested in healthcare communication, can help us fi nd more interested HCP to engage in these collaborations and give a boost to forward the EACH aims.

I hope to see many of you in April 2021 at the in person event hosted by EACH in Leuven. This will be a good time and place to connect and to continue discussing this plan and identify some next steps together.

Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten, associate professor of medical communication emeritus, Radboudumc, Nijmegen,

Developing the international association for communication in healthcare (EACH) to address current challenges of health communication

EACH on the barricades for change now?

Is linking research, teaching and practice in communication in health care the way forward?

The Netherlands and past president of EACH: International Association for Communication in Healthcare. Email: evelyn.vanweel-baumgarten@radboudumc.nl