‘Interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary approach key in research’

“There is no doubt that it is now a global reality that interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary approach is the way to go in our research if we are to make the impact that would be meaningful and a breakthrough that would be lasting.”

These were the words of Professor Kayode Adebowale, the deputy vice chancellor, (Administration) University of Ibadan to scholars who gathered at the three-day international conference held from September 23 to 26, 2019, sponsored by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

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Speaking further, Professor Adebowale stated that the conference was an enormous opportunity to aggregate knowledge in the way of interdisciplinary insight where ethical skills, consultative styles, strategic communication in therapeutic delivery and diverse communication skills in medical negotiations are taught.

Declaring the conference open on behalf of the vice chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, Professor Adebowale noted that the vice chancellor, also a Humboldt fellow, was excited about what the foundation is doing saying, “the German embassy in Nigeria has been very supportive of academic programmes as their presence is felt, particularly in conferences that have been hosted by UI.”

He disclosed that UI now has a humanistic medical laboratory that is being facilitated by the grant won by Professor Akin Odebunmi, president, Nigerian Pragmatics Association (NprA)-cum- convener of the conference.

“We find this collaboration very commendable,” he said.

The conveyer, Professor Akin Odebunmi, while speaking about what led to the organization of the international conference, said both linguists and physicians have a lot to take from each other.

“My research in medical discourse, spanning about two decades of consistent search in the linguistic relationship between doctors and patients, has revealed that while both linguists and physicians have a lot to take from each other, they have rarely mutually tapped into the resources available in both disciplines,” he noted.

While speaking on the theme of the conference, ‘Healing Tongue: Therapeutic Potential of Negotiative Communication in Patient-centred Consultative Encounters’, Odebunmi said: “Healing tongues” is the use of linguistic skills in the therapeutic process.

He said, “These skills are not the same as the routine deployment of language by doctors for clerking and prescriptive purposes. They refer to the strategic selections of locutions, concepts, narratives, common grounds, pragmatic acts and implicatures which tactfully co-opt and commit the patient (in)to the diagnostic and therapeutic processes, and consequently ensure compliance with doctors’ recommendations and facilitate mutually designed therapy plans by doctors and patients.”

He lauded the Humboldt Foundation for launching him into research excellence in Germany and for granting him the Kolleg award which he said constituted a peak in his career as a scholar in medical pragmatics.

In a keynote presentation titled, “Consultative approaches in German Psychosomatic Clinics – The patient-centred interview by  Professor Dr Kurt Fritzsche (MD) and presented by Dr Victor Makanjuola, consultant Psychiatrist, UCH, Ibadan, charged participants at the conference on effective communication skills  and giving emotional support  and active listening, saying “physicians with inadequate communicative competence frequently have burnout symptoms and lower job satisfaction.”

The programme was attended by about 213 scholars, medical professionals and students from Germany, Finland, Cameroon and all parts of Nigeria.