We were excited to host over 300 guests from more than 30 client organizations visiting from six countries at the Cerner Middle East Collaboration Forum. The 3-day forum welcomed guests, on May 21, with four pre-event workshops - Proactive System Management, Developing and Managing Clinical Decision Support, Introduction to Informatics, and Achieving Adoption & Making Change Stick.

Attendance not only exceeded the numbers from last year’s event, but also drew new clients, exhibitors and prospects to the interactive forum.

An interactive setup to let the audience take part in the forum at all times

The spectacular ballroom set-up was the first of its kind for Cerner Middle East to highlight the interactive sessions as well as social media coverage throughout the forum.

“I felt the event was very similar to the Cerner Health Conference.” – client attendee.

Each delegate’s seat in the main ballroom and breakout rooms was equipped with an iPad that provided all information pertaining to the event, provided direct interaction with the speakers throughout the session via real time polls/votes to steer the presentations into the direction of the audience’s interest.

“The best memorable experience at #CernerMECF17.” – client attendee.

Show highlights – May 22

We kicked the day off with Michael Pomerance, Vice President and Managing Director, Cerner Middle East & Africa who opened the forum and provided some personal stories to highlight the importance of our clients sharing their achievements that create healthier stories to enhance patient and clinical experiences.

The internationally renowned, Dave de Bronkart, e-Patient Dave, took the stage with an amazing keynote about engaging patients in the care process – a topic that is of high interest in the Middle East given population health is the next big leap multiple governments are looking forward to establish in the near future.

Following the keynote, a panel role play about a Cybersecurity case study showcased what to do in the event of a ransomware attack. The speakers explained how the defensive measures such as patching and firewalls go so far but organizations need to be proactive, have regular security and information governance assessments so they understand the risks, practice their business continuity procedures regularly and put regular education in place.

Our Gold sponsors, Nuance and Vision Healthcare Systems International, presented with our esteemed clients in Qatar to discuss the success stories they’ve had from clinical and patient perspectives.

Discovering the solutions gallery and exhibition floor

On May 22, the exhibition floor and Cerner’s Solution Gallery opened during the networking lunch and remained opened throughout the day. The space featured six Cerner workstations and 16 Cerner partners who filled the ballroom foyer with their offerings, innovations, and services. Attendees experienced hands-on presentations and engaged with the Cerner presentation team to answer their queries about current and future challenges.

The Cerner gallery included for the first time a Virtual Reality Smart Room Experience for delegates to explore the Cerner Smart Room using a VR gear.

Other Cerner solutions and services included Healthcare Advisory Practice, women’s health, clinically driven revenue cycle, physician workflow and nursing workflow

The afternoon sessions focused on all Cerner Middle East award finalists presenting their submission in Ted Talk style. We had a total of 15 Talks- three for each award category. The audience voted after each session on the event iPads to select their preferred winner.

Show highlights – May 23

We started the day with Alex Davda, Client Director at Ashridge, who presented a motivating keynote about leadership and coaching focusing on how we lead high performing teams. In addition to the interactive polls, the speaker had one-on-one engagements with the audience to tackle perceived pitfalls in leading under pressure.

We had two breakout streams with three sessions each. The main topics were patient portal, nursing, Smart on FHIR, device integration, Clairvia, and revenue cycle management. The sessions were presented by client representatives and Cerner associates.

The awards ceremony was held in the main ballroom. It was hosted by Michael Pomerance and the General Managers who gave out the trophies to the winners.

“It was a proud moment to see all the client achievements recognized.” – client attendee

Dr. Susan Abdel-Rahman from Children’s Mercy Hospital took the stage, after the awards ceremony, to present her session about pediatric precision medicine, the Genomic- and Ontogeny-Linked Dose Individualization and Clinical Optimization for Kids (GOLDILOKs).

Day 3 concluded with an interesting session titled ‘Futurism of the Health & Life’, presented by Michael Schelper, General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Cerner Middle East & Africa. He challenged the health care industry’s present status quo and intrigued the delegates with what the future holds in store for us, especially with the consumer being the center of the health care system.

Thank you to our partners and exhibitors for making the #CernerMECF17 a successful networking event.

Social media was exceptional this year thanks to all the delegates! Here is a snapshot of the stats and analytics:

Do you want to read all the tweets from the event? Follow @CernerME #CernerME #CernerMECF17

Are you interested to read the presentations which took place at the event? These are available on the Middle East Collaboration Forum uCern group. Feel free to follow this group.

The photos and session recordings will be uploaded soon. Stay tuned!

Enjoy the video!