What Doctors Want

Medical meeting planners have so many rules and regulations to keep track of, the needs of their attendees can get lost in the process. What is most important to doctors, and how can organizers maximize what they learn?

This month, the Healthcare Convention Exhibitors Association will release the results of a two-year study on health professionals’ preferences at medical meetings that addresses these questions. (See “Why Go to Exhibits?”)

Jeremy Williams, who serves as president of HealthSTAR Communications as well as CEO of the Photosound Group, which gathered the data, explains that in-depth interviews were conducted with more than 200 health-care professionals, 72 percent of whom were doctors. “We investigated their needs and motivation before a conference and explored their mind-set during a conference.”

The HCEA study revealed that of all possible sources of continuing education, doctors rank medical conferences third, behind the Internet and professional medical journals.

While learning is the top reason for doctors to attend conferences, networking is the second-highest priority, says Williams.

“We hear of virtual this and virtual that, but the human engagement factor is very important,” he adds. In addition, the study found that doctors aren’t impressed with large lecture halls filled with thousands of people. “Big isn’t always best,” Williams notes. “You get lost in a sea of frenzy. Sometimes you can’t even see a speaker.”

To help amplify some of the HCEA study’s findings, M&C asked a number of doctors to discuss their biggest gripes, wants and needs at continuing medical education conferences. Much of what they said makes good sense for any kind of learning session.

1. Be less general, more specific.

Some doctors say special, specific education sessions should take a priority over the amorphous general session at CME conferences.

“I prefer to go to meetings with lots of casual, small-group sessions,” notes Dr. Jeffrey Miller, an orthopedic surgeon based in New London, Conn. “I want to be able to discuss topics like complications and pitfalls of procedures without having to stand up in front of hundreds of people in a huge auditorium.”

And if a big-name speaker is scheduled, why not add on smaller afternoon roundtable discussions where doctors can have one-on-one time? “I find it helpful to further explore facets of a topic with the speakers,” Miller says. “You feel connected to the innovators and thinkers of the field.”

In a previous planning position for a medical association, Karen MacFarland, who now serves as meetings manager for the College Park, Md.-based American Association of Physicists in Medicine, would fill a ballroom with round tables, with a topic card and a speaker at each table so attendees could make their way from conversation to conversation. “People were beating down the door to get to the smaller roundtable discussions,” she recalls.

2. Plan for weekends and holidays.

Most physicians can’t take an afternoon off, much less a whole week. Planning a conference over a weekend ensures more doctors in private practice have a chance to attend.

“When I was part of a large medical group, I could take off for weeklong conferences,” Miller says. “But now, since I’m in private practice, I usually go to conferences where I leave on a Wednesday evening, so I only have to take off Thursday and Friday. Or, I look for conferences on a long weekend when I would have Monday off anyway.”

Dr. Charlie Grimes, chief of radiology at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, agrees entirely: “It helps if I can work the conference into the weekend. I tend to take only a partial week off because I need to get back to the office.”

3. Serve healthful food.

It might seem ironic, but providing snacks and meals for thousands of time-pressed health professionals at conferences presents the problem of healthful vs. fast and convenient.

Charlie Grimes, who describes the choices at conferences as similar to “mall food,” says he would prefer something nutritious between lectures. John Zambos, a Titusville, Fla.-based general and vascular surgeon, agrees there needs to be “better quality food than just hamburgers, even if it is for purchase.” Karen MacFarland says she has retreated from the fruit-filled pastries and cookies from meetings of years past and now puts out yogurt, bananas and prepackaged baby carrots. “I have to feed approximately 1,900 people,” she notes, “and I always hear that there are not enough vegetarian lunches.”

Companies like GoPicnic (www.gopicnic.com) are making it easier to offer healthful food to a crowd on the fly. GoPicnic offers pre-packaged boxed meals that don’t have to be heated or refrigerated, ranging from full meals with bean and pasta salads to snack-sized meals with tuna and edamame.

4. Add more breaks and free time.

Timothy A. Moses, director of meetings and conventions for the Schaumburg, Ill.-based American Academy of Dermatology, says one of the most common complaints he hears is about the jam-packed, intense agendas.

“I like variety, and I don’t think people learn much after four to five hours anyway,” says Grimes. “I prefer to mix it up with relaxed discussions and hands-on sessions where you are actively engaged. I think there should be more time to exercise or take a tour of the area, too.”

Dr. Christopher Manion, MBA, CPE and the network medical director for the Community Health Network in Titusville, Fla., says he would prefer “breaks every 50 minutes instead of every two to three hours.”

5. Minimize tedious processes.

Asking doctors to sign in too often can be annoying and time consuming, but never asking them to sign in at all can send the message that attendance at seminars and events isn’t important.

“At some conferences, if I take a break at the end of a lecture and stop by the trade show for 15 minutes, I have to sign in all over again,” says Miller. “It really ticks me off to have to sign in for every lecture. But signing in every day should be required. There needs to be some encouragement to be there.”

Similarly, attendee evaluations during conferences can be cumbersome and time consuming, especially when a doctor is trying to focus on the lecture or material.

“The evaluations are valuable, but they should be done in a less obtrusive way,” Grimes says, adding that standing in line to pick up the survey and drop it off is an unwelcome distraction.

6. Make time for socializing.

Echoing the HCEA study, almost every doctor contacted for this story rated networking as a top priority during a conference.

“My favorite meetings offer plenty of nightly social events,” says Miller. “You can meet the well-known speakers and ask questions on the side. The cocktail hours and social events are fun ways of learning in a less pressured, more casual environment.”

Dr. Luis Quintero, a Greenville, S.C.-based emergency physician and vice president of consulting services for the Southeast division of TeamHealth, a firm that contracts with doctors for hospitals, plans in-house risk-management and leadership seminars. He says allowing more time for interaction between educational sessions helps keep interest piqued while satisfying the need for more social time.

“Instead of having a lecture for a full hour, have one for 40 minutes and then allow 20 minutes for interaction,” he recommends.

7. Keep all levels of education in mind.

The chances are good that some attendees will have been in practice for decades, while others will be new to the field. Be sure to appeal to all levels of experience.

Karen MacFarland set up bar-stool discussion sessions for younger members at the annual meeting of a medical association she worked for two years ago. “It was a ‘meet the experts’ kind of discussion, with mentor medical physicists sitting around, surrounded by bar stools, and anyone could approach them and talk,” she says. “Grad students felt a good deal less intimidated.”

Timothy Moses says the American Academy of Dermatology has created special educational content exclusively for its younger members. “We try to focus on hot topics, which they like,” he says. “We offer a residents’ practice management course one day prior to the annual meeting. It’s very popular and receives high ratings.”

8. Get them involved.

A growing number of medical meetings are incorporating hands-on learning sessions instead of the more typical sit-and-listen lectures. Whether it’s answering poll questions during an educational session using audience response systems, or even participating in workshops designed to mimic procedures or exams, doing is always better than just listening.

“I prefer an interactive presentation,” says Grimes, who, for example, engaged in a fully functional, digital radiology workstation where radiologists could review and interpret cases in a simulated environment. “It all goes back to adult learning theory,” he adds. “People don’t learn well sitting in a room and falling asleep. It’s really important to add something beyond what people can get online, so we have to work a little harder.”

9. Don’t compromise integrity.

Luis Quintero says pharmaceutical companies sponsoring entire conferences or even small education sessions at conferences rubs him the wrong way. “If I know a pharmaceutical company is funding the conference, then essentially I have to realize that whatever they say has to be geared toward their point of view,” he notes.

“It is a problem on a couple of fronts,” Grimes acknowledges. “Sponsorship by pharmaceutical or electronics manufacturers can introduce biases in terms of what speakers say and the manner in which they say it. On the other hand, these activities need funding. The compromise position is full disclosure by all the speakers. Perhaps we need to build on that process to give it as much integrity as possible.”

Moses says that one of his biggest challenges planning the AAD’s annual five-day meeting for 18,000 dermatologists is “ensuring we are offering the highest quality education while balancing the level of corporate support we receive. Although the academy does accept restricted and nonrestricted educational grants, we take special precautions to ensure that the AAD has sole control over its educational programming.”

Adds Moses, “Our speakers are required to provide full disclosure of a possible conflict of interest when they submit their session materials. We print this in our pre- and on-site programs as well as on our website, and the speakers also state this verbally at the start of their sessions.”