Tiberio Catania, Group Commercial Director, EPG Communications Group, outlines key findings from a recently published survey into healthcare professional and pharmaceutical industry attitudes towards online scientific meetings.

Recorded 1 November 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

EPG’s ‘Scientific Meetings in the Digital Age’ report examines the evolution of healthcare professional (HCP) demand for and industry supply of online scientific meetings. The report based on an independent market research study, conducted in May 2017 with three stakeholder groups: healthcare and pharmaceutical industry professionals and service providers reveals insights into the discrepancy between what HCPs want from online meetings and what industry is supplying, and offers suggestions as to how industry can improve the value of online meetings.

Over two-thirds of HCPs surveyed said that scientific meetings continue to be the most important way in which they gain new information and skills. They reported a clear and increasing demand for online access and content, available on-demand throughout the year. They see online access as overcoming the main challenges to onsite attendance, namely cost, time and convenience and 90% agreed that access to information and discussion beyond a scientific meeting helped them to apply new medical approaches more quickly. Over half of HCPs said they valued videos of opinion leader presentations, case study discussions, e-learning modules, conference highlights and expert summaries, while 88% valued independent meeting portals supported by pharma. However, 71% of pharmaceutical companies surveyed said they invested more in their own portals than in independent portals, while less than a third currently had a high focus on dissemination of information beyond an onsite event, and more than half reported a lack of confidence in the benefits, lack of budget and internal resistance to change. The survey supplies compelling evidence to support changes in online meeting provision and access in order to increase audience reach, save cost and resources and increase the lifespan of conference content.

Note: the full data report is available, free of charge from EPG Communications Group, at https://www.epghealthmedia.com/pharmaceutical-industry-reports/scientific-meetings-in-the-digital-age-study.html

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event_011117.html

Tiberio’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/catania_011117.pdf

Tiberio’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/tibcatania/

More about EPG Communications Group can be found at https://www.epghealthmedia.com

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]