It would be fair to say that a lot of people (myself included) didn’t see COVID-19 coming. Someone who in a way did see this coming is Pim Martens of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Martens wrote an insightful article back in 2002, where he explored the idea of health transitions, and asked if we are tracking towards more disease or sustained health.Martens put forward the idea of the ‘health transition’, which proposes that social, economic and ecological changes have driven changes in the health of populations.

With the global disruption wrought by COVID-19 in so many ways, from the tragic to the mundane, those of us fortunate to still be in work are having to find new ways of connecting with our colleagues. The main reflection for me is that although we do have to make adaptations to our approach when we shift from in-person to virtual workshops, there are fundamentals that remain: inclusion, respect, careful planning, balancing structure and spontaneity, and acknowledging the challenges we face as well as the opportunities we seek.