Last week Dr Georgia Richards (2nd from left) travelled to Banff, along with colleagues from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM), to attend the inaugural conference: ‘Looking at the Pandemic in the Rear-view Mirror: Successes, Failures and Unexpected Consequences’. Here are her reflections:
'One of my highlights of the week, aside from the incredible location and hospitality, was the coming together of people from so many different disciplines, backgrounds and career stages, and having these different disciplines speak together in the same sessions and panels rather than being siloed or hierarchical. We heard perspectives and the incredible work happening from the lab to the bedside, as well as from methodologists, systematic reviewers, epidemiologists, statisticians, health economists, and social scientists. This highlights the importance and uniqueness of the Pandemic EVIDENCE Collaboration, which should be harnessed when looking to the future.
The second theme that emerged during the conference was the importance and need for effective communication with the public, using lay language, beyond academic publications. And finally, it was amazing to see so many examples of the direct impact that people's research had during the pandemic, including changing government policies, as well as the ongoing research that is underway to develop the evidence for future pandemics.'
Find out more about the programmes Dr Richards teaches and supervises on here.