2023 promises to be the most exciting year ever for Conversations Inviting Change

Posts on this CIC website usually announce just one new development. There are so many under way at the moment that this entry will list several all together.

A new international online course for CIC trainers is starting in April 2023 with participants from the UK, Ireland, Canada and Denmark.

Our collaboration with Narrative Practice Ireland has led to a recent combined workshop in Dublin in narrative practice and narrative medicine, Columbia University-style, attended by some of their alumni and faculty. This exciting work continues.

The UK-Japan CIC Think Tank of British and Japanese medical educators is continuing to meet monthly and is currently preparing a remote presentation and workshop at the annual conference of the Japanese Primary Care Association in May, followed by John Launer’s teaching visit to four medical centres in Japan in July.

Our third online course for the San Diego Pain Summit has now been confirmed for October, and will be co-led by Diarmuid Denneny, chair of the UK Physiotherapy Pain Association.

The Association of Narrative Practice in Healthcare (ANPH) is collaborating with Kings College London in planning an international conference in June 2024 on “Varieties of Narrative Medicine.” Those involved so far include Arthur Frank, Rita Charon, Maria Giulia Marini and Guo Liping from Beijing University.

The co-chairs of ANPH, Diana Kelly and Geoff Wykurz, are exploring formal links with one of the UK’s new medical schools to develop the teaching of CIC further in undergraduate and postgraduate education and provide us with an academic and research base.

CIC trainers and other members of ANPH continue to teach commissioned courses and workshops for GP and multiprofessional groups. Recent and forthcoming ones include Barnet, Enfield and Haringey NHS Trust, Bangor GP training scheme in North Wales, and HEE in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Members continue to write regular publications including in BJGP, Education for Primary Care and the Chronicle of Narrative Medicine.

Watch this space for even more developments in 2023!