iii WCCS26: World Conference on Complex Systems 20-22nd April

Chaos
Making a New Science 
by James Gleick

When I first learned of WCCS26, I saw a connection, an affinity across the conference themes. This was reinforced when I read the final program for WCCS. Here was a home for the model, a way-point for Hodges' model. For an independent scholar, it was quite a trip to Ben Guerir, to the north of Marrakech; 13 hours (brief by global standards). It was a place to wave wildly, making use of the opportunity to present Hodges' model, to say - "Dear All, can you do anything with this?".

It is almost 40 years since I read James Gleik's, Chaos: Making a New Science. That was in Cornwall I think? Now, something more than book - a complexity conference.  

 After the first two keynotes - two panels: 

 Panel 1 - Complexity, Society & Global Challenges

▪ Carlos Álvarez Pereira - No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity
▪ David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society
▪ Louis Klein - Noospheric Singularity and the Mirror of Tamkeen
Panel Chair: Karima Kadaoui

These confirmed I was in the right place. Well, it was bit late if I wasn't! I was reminded of the slow movement, and how in healthcare, specifically client-nurse intereactions you had time to manage your time, that is your caseload to deliver person-centred care. I don't mean time-wasting, as in social chat, tea and custard creams either. This is what being professional is about, truly trying to make a difference - that lasts. So we worked through: What is; (science) what we understand; and (tech and law) what should be. Ecologically, we often refer to the size of our footprints. Panel one considered this individually and collectively - institutionally. Fascinating to reflect upon these themes and how modernity is stamping about in a rather chaotic way? We are seemingly power-less to stop this.

c/o Carlos Álvarez Pereira
No Limits to Hope: Escaping from the unreasonable effectiveness of Modernity

Three reports to the Club of Rome were displayed, spanning 'NO LIMITS TO LEARNING - Bridging the human gap' 1979; 'Limits and Beyond' 2022; 'NO LIMITS TO HOPE - Liberate the potential for Collective Learning' 2026. Should we be troubled, worried even, that the latest followed after a mere four years? There are of course, many reports as per the link above.

David Chavalarias - The Artificialization of Cultural Evolution: the Impact of Very Large Digital Infrastructures on Individuals and Society spoke about the beneficial and malign impacts of social media AI tools. Covid featured as might be expected. Within the sciences, what was worrying, was an innovation slowdown associated with AI, non-AI use, chartered around a central point (centroid). I believe the slide referred to:

Qianyue Hao & Fengli Xu & Yong Li & James Evans, 2026. "Artificial intelligence tools expand scientists’ impact but contract science’s focus," Nature, vol. 649(8099), pages 1237-1243, January. 

There was one slide:

Is this the demise of any efforts to achieve SOCIO-technical synergy? Even to the extent of realising benefits for the human in socio-technical systems? Did Covid not teach us anything about the informational difference technology can make? When so many technologies are muted by a virus? This is what we need: things to think about, question and critique. 

There used to be a series of A3 step-by-step oil painting magazines in the 1970s. One presented a desert campfire, clearly set in the east. I did try it, though not sure were the result is now. ... Such a scenario was presented by Louis Kleinand the Noospheric Singularity and the Tamkeen Process - Regenerative Hermeneutics, with the following reference provided:

Klein, L., & Kadaoui, K. (2024). Realising metamorphic transformation in the mirror of Tamkeen: Growing a shared understanding from co-reflected lived experiences. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 41(5), 738–749. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.3058 

There was much I could identify with. And, once again, I cannot continue at this pace. We have only covered (touched!) panel one. Hopefully you now have an idea of the depth of the conference programme. More however, will follow.

See also: thefifthelement.earth

Chaos - cover: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/826080.Chaos

Variable Hours Tutor: Take II

In September 2019 I was successful in securing a part-time post as a university tutor. This was great news.

While I've always worked in practice, I've enjoyed having students as a (sign-off) mentor and helping colleagues to fill holidays and other gaps; and completing a certificate in education (PGCE). In the past with the help of colleagues, I've organised teaching sessions for students on placement and small conferences. Now, I miss 'mentor updates' and meetings with the university outreach teams - practice education facilitators.

Of course at the end of 2019 a pandemic was brewing. The upshot - sadly for me - the tutoring was a non-event. No teaching (learning) opportunities followed, and the contract was not renewed in August 2020. 

Through nurse revalidation in March 2023, I was helped in Warrington with another academic contact. I attended an open event, but again no openings. In (N) spring last year, I picked up the 2019 thread once again. 

Success again! Another chance. Six months having passed, I do wonder though  - if any hours will follow? 

Fingers still crossed, having chased and looking elsewhere too.

https://hodges-model.blogspot.com/2023/08/brian-e-hodges-r-i-p.html

COVID-19: a Stamp of protection

INDIVIDUAL

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES              

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

GROUP

	Austria - Embroidered COVID-19 mask - Mint souvenir sheet

Source: Nordfrim.com - https://www.nordfrim.com/austria-covid-19-maske?

.. with apologies for the reminder!

STUDY: Bailed out and burned out? The financial impact of COVID-19 on UK care homes for older people and their workforce

 Via CHPI:

This research is the product of a collaboration between Warwick Business School, University College London and the CHPI, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. 

The two year study examined  the financial impacts of the pandemic on UK care homes for older people  and their staff. It is based on an analysis of hundreds of company accounts, interviews with care home staff and a survey of over 600 care home workers.

 

Key findings

1. Without £2 billion of government support, and care workers working longer and harder, the sector would almost certainly have collapsed financially during the first year of the pandemic. That emergency funding helped to stabilise care homes early in the pandemic. Some even increased payments to investors: a quarter of companies increased dividends, by 11%.  
2. Since the peak of the pandemic, the care home sector has faced a financial crisis due to the removal of government financial support despite continuing COVID outbreaks, workforce shortages and inflation.  
3. Government support focused on keeping care homes financially viable, with only a small proportion devoted directly to supporting staff who were working in extreme circumstances. As many as 4 in 10 care home staff reported financial problems related to working in care during the pandemic. 
4. The financial impacts on staff varied by ownership type and size. Staff experiences were more positive in not-for-profits and smaller organisations on a range of measures. 
5. Staff valued in-person support from colleagues, managers, and external professionals 

Recommendations

1. Improved contingency planning for the financial impacts of future pandemics and their consequences for staffing, including creating a standby emergency social care workforce.  
2. Sustained government support for care homes coping with the lasting impacts of pandemics. 
3. Public funding for care, including emergency support during pandemics, should take account of evidence showing varying outcomes by ownership type and should seek to promote forms of provision that offer both good care and good jobs.  
4. Government and employers should improve pay and conditions for care staff, in general and especially during pandemics (including recognition payments, enhanced sick pay and overtime rates).  
5. Government should work with employers topromote a better understanding of how care staff experience their working lives, for example through an annual national workforce survey and to ensure adequate personal, professional, and clinical support is accessible to social care staff, particularly during a pandemic.
   
   

Fotaki, M., Horton, A., Rowland, D., Ozdemir Kaya, D. & Gain, A. (2023) Bailed out and burned out? The financial impact of COVID-19 on UK care homes for older people and their workforce. Coventry: Warwick Business School.

Listen also ... BBC Radio 4 Today 0652.50 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001kx5m

Learning Health Systems, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 2022 NOW ONLINE

 

IN MEMORIAM

Recollections of John Fox: One of the founders of medical AI
Jeremy C. Wyatt

LEARNING FROM DATA

Better together: Integrating biomedical informatics and healthcare IT operations to create a learning health system during the COVID‐19 pandemic
Philip R.O. Payne, Adam B. Wilcox, Peter J. Embi, Christopher A. Longhurst

 

COMMENTARY

Balancing reality in embedded research and evaluation: Low vs high embeddedness
George L. Jackson, Laura J. Damschroder, Brandolyn S. White, Blake Henderson, Ryan J. Vega, Amy M. Kilbourne, Sarah L. Cutrona

RESEARCH REPORTS

Clarifying the concept of a learning health system for healthcare delivery organizations: Implications from a qualitative analysis of the scientific literature
Douglas Easterling, Anna C. Perry, Rachel Woodside, Tanha Patel, Sabina B. Gesell

Creativity in problem solving to improve complex health outcomes: Insights from hospitals seeking to improve cardiovascular care
Amanda L. Brewster, Yuna S. H. Lee, Erika L. Linnander, Leslie A. Curry

Development of a rehabilitation researcher survey of knowledge and interest in learning health systems research
Linda Resnik, Melissa A. Clark, Janet Freburger, Christine McDonough, Kathleen Poploski, Kristin Ressel, Margarite Whitten, Joel Stevans

POLICY ANALYSES

Justice and equity in pragmatic clinical trials: Considerations for pain research within integrated health systems
Joseph Ali, Alison F. Davis, Diana J. Burgess, Daniel I. Rhon, Robert Vining, Stacey Young-McCaughan, Sean Green, Robert D. Kerns

BRIEF

A learning health system approach to COVID‐19 exposure notification system rollout
Ming Tai-Seale, Nicole May, Amy Sitapati, Christopher A. Longhurst

EXPERIENCE REPORTS

Building responsive governance for learning networks
Keith Porcaro

The University of Alabama at Birmingham COVID‐19 Collaborative Outcomes Research Enterprise: Developing an institutional learning health system in response to the global pandemic
Jami L. Anderson, Rebecca A. Reamey, Emily B. Levitan, Irfan M. Asif, Monica S. Aswani, Faith E. Fletcher, Allyson G. Hall, Kierstin C. Kennedy, Dustin Long, David Redden, Alia Tunagur, Molly Wasko, James Willig, Matthew Wyatt, Michael J. Mugavero

My source: Request by -

Kathleen Young
Editorial Assistant, Learning Health Systems journal
Victor Vaughan
1111 East Catherine Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

"Death and Dying in COVID Times: Necropolitics of ECMO"

c/o Radical Philosophy Hour

 

 

 

INDIVIDUAL

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 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

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GROUP

consciousness conceptualization 'distance' from power? vulnerability

"Abstract: The realities forged - and exacerbated by - the COVID19 pandemic have occasioned broader engagement with an otherwise esoteric means of life-support, Extracorporeal Membranous Oxygenation. Commonly known as “ECMO,” this technology functions as a simulated placenta, an exogenous system for oxygenating and circulating blood in gravely ill folks. ECMO is a so-called “heroic measure,” a last ditch and often futile intervention in the care of critically ill adults who are out of other options. ...

death dignity ACHILLE MBEMBE NECRO-POLITICS

... In this talk, we attend to Mbembe’s necropolitics, determinations of who will live and who will die, that inhere in the healthcare rationing of ECMO. We contrast the necropolitical economies of healthcare across three distinct nursing milieux, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. The analytics of necropolitics in ECMO leads us to a critique of the transhuman impulse to attenuate death in the context of neoliberal healthcare economies. We examine the possibilities afforded by new materialist perspectives on the liminality between living and dying in the work and enactment of nursing care. We conclude with a call to speculative ethics for healthcare, attending to current realities while cleaving to what else is possible, a reparatory intervention for the white, cisheteronormative, ableist, colonial, patriarchal structures that enclose terrains of possibility for healthcare and beyond."