FHIR Chat · IHE Connectathon, Brussels · social

Stream: social

Topic: IHE Connectathon, Brussels

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Dave deBronkart (Mar 07 2020 at 14:37):

Swiped from the Pandemic Hackathon thread, for better visibility:

René Spronk said:

Update from the IHE Connectathon in Brussels: the entire event will go ahead as planned (with some extra measures in place). Source: IHE website.

Specifically: https://connectathon.ihe-europe.net/news-and-press/news/update-march-6th-ihe-europe-connectathon-week-march-23-27-confirmed

David Pyke (Mar 07 2020 at 15:06):

HIMSS was saying that within hours of cancelling...

Dave deBronkart (Mar 07 2020 at 15:24):

Yeahbut "was saying that" is vulnerable to worries about rumors, until it's published on the official site, right? So thanks, @René :-)

René Spronk (Mar 12 2020 at 07:45):

Things keep changing: right now, the connectathon will go ahead (physically in Brussels, and virtually). The plugathon on Tuesday/Wednesday will be taking place, the side events on Thursday and Friday have been cancelled. Belgian employees of healthcare provider organizations are no longer allowed to attend conferences and other (large) meetings (according to the Belgian federal healthcare ministry).

Grahame Grieve (Mar 12 2020 at 08:00):

yep. THe problem we all face is that it's always possible to confirm that a meeting is off, but any confirmation that a meeting is actually on will just be taken as kicking the can down the road until the organisers can accept that it's not on

René Spronk (Mar 12 2020 at 10:19):

Indeed. I just heard the entire meeting has been postponed (probably to November).

Oliver Egger (Mar 12 2020 at 13:28):

details here if interested: https://www.ihe-europe.net/update-on-Coronavirus

Grahame Grieve (Mar 12 2020 at 21:41):

it's always possible to confirm that a meeting is off, but any confirmation that a meeting is actually on will just be taken as kicking the can down the road until the organisers can accept that it's not on

high profile example: the government here in Victoria kept confirming that the grand prix was on and it started yesterday - but today they have finally accepted that it's not happening. After it started.

better just accept that things are not on in march | april | may time frame

Grahame Grieve (Mar 12 2020 at 21:42):

it's pretty certain that the San Antonio HL7 meeting won't be a physical meeting; instead we'll be working on a virtual replacement (but not yet formally announced, so not totally certain)

Peter Jordan (Mar 12 2020 at 21:48):

At this stage, the final decision on the San Antonio meeting likely to be made at the HL7 International Board meeting on March 23/24.

Lloyd McKenzie (Mar 13 2020 at 04:40):

That may be when the decision gets blessed, but I think it's safe to say that in practical terms, the decision is made. No one will physically travel to it, even if they're in one of the few places that still allow travel at that point. It's virtual or nothing.

Dave deBronkart (Mar 13 2020 at 19:06):

For those who haven't seen it yet - it's pretty hard to argue with this Altantic article this week:
Cancel Everything

I'm not in a position to vouch for the data behind this chart, which says it uses data from the Institute for Disease Modeling, but if it's anywhere close to accurate it's a potent argument for everyone staying home.
image.png

It's under the heading "More Numbers" in this post, the third in Dr Jordan Shlain's all-too-informative Tincture series from the front lines.

Grahame Grieve (Mar 13 2020 at 19:08):

I pretty much agree - as far as I can tell, though this is not my speciality - we will deeply regret waiting to do this. We've seen the models playing out in real life (other countries have tested them for us at immense cost) and we know enough to act. but will we?

Dave deBronkart (Mar 13 2020 at 19:08):

Here's IDM's tweet Wednesday with the source article for those graphs. https://twitter.com/IDMOD_ORG/status/1237881591784865793

Paul Church (Mar 13 2020 at 19:14):

I've been pleasantly surprised how well the Canadian media (at least the mainstream parts) have done at explaining "flattening the curve" in a clear and consistent way.

Grahame Grieve (Mar 13 2020 at 19:15):

If I was running policy for Australia right now, here's what I would be doing:

• throwing everything I could at testing (I see people claiming Tom Hanks could get tested because he's in Australia, but in fact people around me can't get tested without significant risk factors)
• beefing up the healthcare system as fast as I can, and very publicly at that
• shutting down society as much as I can without endangering the supply lines that maintain people's lives
• building infrastructure to allow the country to enforce social distancing using apps

What we are doing here (and some things are being done), and is being done in UK and USA - where I'm connected enough to know - is 2-3 weeks behind the curve. People are going to die because we didn't.

Grahame Grieve (Mar 13 2020 at 19:20):

of course the wild card here in Australia is that we're not in flu season right now - it's coming. So maybe we don't want to slow it down that much? If only we had hindsight...

Dave deBronkart (Mar 13 2020 at 23:27):

I will say that since a dry cough is a COVID-19 symptom, this is the first time in my life I've been thrilled when a cough is, as they say, "productive." What times we live in.

(Is this thread still in Brussels?)

René Spronk (Mar 14 2020 at 10:50):

I'm afraid this thread is wherever you want it to be.
It's difficult to hear the rational argument sometimes, for example the Netherlands wants schools for under 12 year olds to stay open, stating that a) children are a very low risk group, and there are no known cases of child to adult transmission, and b) closing schools would force parents to remain home, which is a major (additional/unnecessary) disruption (also for healthcare workers and other essential services).
Is this a wise move? I'm not an expert, and non-experts tend to wish to clamp down everything. It's been too long ago that we (as humans) had an epidemic like this, and it's near to impossible to compare the flu epidemics of 1918 or 1957 to the current day and age.

Grahame Grieve (Mar 14 2020 at 20:05):

clearly keeping schools open or not is going to be a flash point in the next little while; epidemiology from previous epidemics shows that closing schools saved lives, but the characteristics of this virus are quite different. I don't know how schools in Netherlands work, but the primary issue is the mixing of adults that schools engender.

Tom Matthews (Mar 17 2020 at 13:44):

Dave deBronkart said:

I will say that since a dry cough is a COVID-19 symptom, this is the first time in my life I've been thrilled when a cough is, as they say, "productive." What times we live in.

(Is this thread still in Brussels?)

ha! @Dave deBronkart I was thinking the EXACT same thing this morning! Never in my career have I been thrilled about productive cough sx until now.

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Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC