The medical conference is dead,
long live the medical conference
Len Starnes digital healthcare consultant

The format of medical society
conferences has remained
unchanged for over 100 years
http://www.fims.org/en/general/about-fims/

But not for much longer…

What constitutes a ’
meeting’
today?
It suggests that the way doctors once related
was episodic and isolated. We would come,
then we would go away. I m in, I m out. Now we re
engaging, now we re not. Until we meet again.
Now the meeting and the conversation never
really end, and our engagement is increasingly
continuous.
Bryan Vartabedian
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine, USA
Commentator on the frontline of
technology and medicine

1
2
3
Dressing gown
or suit?
The shape
of things to come
What it
all means

Dressing
gown
or suit?

The digitally-native
majority is driving change
LBI Health: http://www.lbi.com/uk/

More doctors will attend in
a dressing gown
’attending the ACR
‘ Iinllmy dressing gown, virtually,
from the
comfort of my home office…
Not Dr Ronan Kavanagh,
but Harold Lloyd looking
decidedly suave
…I have set up a list of all the
rheumatologists I know who
will be tweeting, following
the hashtag for the meeting
(#ACR2012)…
’
Dr Ronan Kavanagh, Rheumatologist
http://www.ronankavanagh.ie/blog/attending-a-medical-meeting-in-my-dressing-gown/

‘ The numbers of doctors tweeting at
the ACR [2013] has increased
dramatically and this has added a
whole new dynamic to the meeting.
Dr Ronan Kavanagh, Rheumatologist
http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/acr13/
’

Physical attendee doctor
Expects medical socs Values paper-based
to dictate programmes written proceedings
Perceives confs as Content to engage with
temporally-limited presenters and attendees
events at physical event
Seeks to attend confs Sees limited value in using
physically whenever social media at medical
possible confs

Virtual attendee doctor
Expects to help shape
conf programmes
Follows live & recorded
streaming audio & video
Perceives confs as
continuous 365-day
interactive events
Engages with presenters
& attendees before,
during and after event
Opts for physical
participation
only occasionally
Regards Twitter, Linkedin,
Facebook, Google+ as
essential conf tools

Physical and virtual attendee
doctors are not mutually
exclusive groups
Physical
Virtual
Face-to-face communications will remain
essential for many

Virtual attendees set to
outnumber physical
1600
1400
Attendees
Physical conference attendees
Virtual conference attendees
1200
1000
800
600
Baseline = 100%
Number of physical conference
attendees in 2010
400
200
0
2010
2013
2015
Scenario based on current growth of virtual vs physical conference attendees
2020
2023

We need to make a distinction between
physical attendees (those in the room)
and the whole audience. For some leading
conferences, the true audience is many
times larger than the number of physical
attendees. Social media, and especially
Twitter, is driving this conference
participation disruption.
Auden Utengen
Founder & partner symplur.com

Virtual access increases
frequency of attendances
Change in overall frequency of attending
conferences among doctors accessing
live and recorded virtual sessions (2012)
7%
Less frequently
than 2 years ago Column1
63%
More frequently
than 2 years ago
30%
As frequently
as 2 years ago
Taking the Pulse Europe, Manhattan Research 2012

Due to rising costs, carbon footprints and the
increasing importance of spending our time
efficiently, virtual events will take place more and
more often. As people like to argue that the real life
handshake is missing from virtual encounters, the
force feedback technique used in the gaming
industry will soon make it happen too, therefore
it's going to be much more reasonable to organize
virtual events with no geographical or time
limitations than only real life events.
Dr Bertalan Mesko
World s most wired doctor
Medical futurist
Founder of webincina.com

The shape
of things to come

The new world of
collaborative healthcare
will usher in a new world
of collaborative medical
conferences

The European
Society of
Cardiology
annual congress
How one congress
is evolving into a
collaborative
physical & virtual
event

The generational divide
Digital technologies
enable doctors to
keep up with the
latest advances in
medicine, lessening
their dependence on
medical societies as a
prime source of
reference
Younger generation
cardiologists are
less loyal to the
Society
Stephanie Raty
Head of Congress Marketing
& Communications
European Society of cardiology

Transforming to a global
event via digital & social
North America
Europe
Latin America
Africa
Attendees from
all continents
Most abstract submissions
originate from Japan
Source: European Society of Cardiology
Asia Pacific

The 5-day Congress is now a
365-day Congress
Collaborative
physical + virtual
Congress
Engagement
pre, during
& post
congress
Traditional
physical
Congress
Pre-event
Event
Post-event

ESC Congress 365
Everywhere
24 hours/day
365 days/year

English
French
German
Italian
Spanish

More than twice as many
virtual 365 attendees
as physical
102k unique visitors
177k visits
846k page views
18 Jan – 12 Nov 2013: European Society of Cardiology analytics

Use of social media to
share up almost 100%
Percent ESC attendees
who use social media to
share Congress learnings
Sales
Sales
53%
2013
28%
2011
Source: European Society of Cardiology November 2013

4 platforms dominate
social media usage
Platforms used most by 53% of ESC Congress
attendees: private + professional use
30%
15%
10%
Source European Society of Cardiology: sample of 2000 ESC Congress attendees 2013
10%

ESC members are cautious
of using Twitter but this is
expected to change rapidly
Source: European Society of Cardiology

Learning how to leverage
the immediacy of Twitter
Live reporting
Comment
Discussion
Real-time physical/virtual attendee dialogue
http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/esccongress2013/

In future: more focus on
live Twitter reporting
Limited use of
Twitter reporters at
ESC Congress 2013
Planning to deploy
medical students as
Twitter reporters
in 2014
Source: European Society of Cardiology

‘ The sound of the keyboard
is the new sound of applause ’
Lisa Fields
@practicalwisdom

Under review
A dedicated
members-only
ESC-owned
community to
share, discuss
and collaborate

The Hub: a new
interactive format
Less intimidating
environment
1 expert,
20 - 30
attendees
Expert
Intensive
focused
Q&A
Open to virtual
attendees
via Twitter

60% of attendees
downloaded Congress app
Browse sessions
Create personalised
Congress programme
Find practical Congress
information
Stay informed with latest news
Follow discussions on
#ESCcongress2013 hashtag
Source: European Society of Cardiology

Exploring how the
Congress could be used
for acquiring eCME credits
Virtual attendees will be able to
gain points from e-learning modules

Pharma scenarios
Exhibition booths
Smaller
Less brand focused
More science focused
Fewer gimmicks
More interactive
Sponsored symposia
Source: European Society of Cardiology
Less brand focused
More science focused
More educational
More open
More interactive

What ESC members
want in future
More practiceorientated
sessions
47%
More clinical
trials results
26%
More hot-topic
coverage
26%
More online
resources
More dynamic
speakers
25%
17%
0
10
20
Source European Society of Cardiology: survey of members 2013
30
40
50

Challenges ahead
ESC and Congress Committee
must develop a long-term
vision for the event
Impact of digital technologies
and social media must be fully
understood
Value proposition for younger
generation cardiologists must
be continuously revised

What it
all means

Medical societies

Redefine the conference
Create more collaborative networked formats that
reflect how new medical advances are continuously
disseminated to daily practice
Treat eCME as complementary
Address the needs of the virtual-attendee majority
But without neglecting the physical
Relinquish media control & embrace open dialogue
Increasing use of social media will mandate open policies

Doctors

Embrace virtual attendance
Physical attendance at conferences will no longer
be the only or preferred way of keeping up with
medical advances
CME is a continuous activity
Live and recorded audio and video streaming will
enable information to be effortlessly filtered,
followed, and documented
Conferences are now 365-day events
Social media open opportunities to engage
before, during and after the event
Select from open and closed-access platforms

Patients/patient organizations

Be part of the conversation
Use social media to enable the voice of the patient
to be heard
Medicine is participatory
Work with medical societies to help shape
programmes reflecting patient wisdom,
perspectives, and needs
ePatient scholars can help improve health outcomes
Boehringer Ingelheim s #ChatAfib tweet chat set
a precedent
Demonstrated how doctors, patients, patient organizations,
pharma, and the medical media can openly engage

Pharma

Redefine participation
Medical, Marketing and Sales must adapt to the
new knowledge and data dissemination paradigm
Collaborative 365-day conferences will be a challenge;
recognition will signal the end of an era
Booths will be science focused and interactive
Virtual-attendee majority will expect to engage with
the booth team; Corporate Compliance will object
Sage on the stage* sponsored symposia will wither
Attendees will avoid didactic brand-focused lectures and opt
for formats that are more science based, collaborative and
open; Medical, Marketing and CorpComs will stage a lastditch battle
*With thanks to Bryan Vartabedian

This is just the beginning.

Learn more
Digitally Sick podcast with
Alex Butler, Andrew Spong, Faisal Ahmed, Len Starnes
Scientific communications in a digital age
http://digitallysick.com
#ChatAfib Boehringer Ingelheim-sponsored tweet chat
Transcripts & analytics
http://tinyurl.com/mvc6etz
#hcsmeu chat 18 October 2013
Use of Twitter & tweet chats at professional medical
conferences
Transcripts & analytics:
http://tinyurl.com/luldukt

This is the second of two presentations
exploring the impact of social media
and digital technologies on
professional medical conferences
Part 1: #ChatAfib. One small step for a pharma, one giant
leap for the pharma industry
http://www.slideshare.net/lenstarnes/boehringer-afib-chatfinal20-nov-13
Part 2: The medical conference is dead, long live the
medical conference
Further explorations of this topic are planned for 2014

A sincere thanks to the following for
their help and support in developing
this presentation
•
•
•
•
•
Ben Hainsworth, European Society of Cardiology, @escardio
•
•
•
Bertalan Mesko, MD, PhD, medical futurist, @Berci, webicina.com
•
Bryan Vartabedian MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine, USA, @Doctor_V, 33charts.com
Lisa Fields, social media consultant, @practicalwisdom
Dr Lutz Gogoll, cardiologist, Berlin, Germany
Davi Kaur, European Cancer Organization, @EuropeanCancer
Dr Ronan Kavanagh, rheumatologist, Ireland
@RonanTKavanagh, ronankavanagh.ie
Stefanie Raty, European Society of Cardiology, @escardio
Auden Utengen, founder & partner Symplur, @symplur, @audvin,
symplur.com

Len Starnes
lenstarnes@gmail.com
T: + 49 30 781 5513
M: + 49 172 1788253
Skype: lenstarnes
linkedin.com/in/lenstarnes
twitter.com/lenstarnes
slideshare.net/lenstarnes