Medical meetings are being disrupted more than any other sector we work with, . While the profession is thriving, scientific meetings and healthcare professional conferences aren't performing nearly as well as they did five to ten years ago.
Three of the main factors contributing to declines in registration and industry participation include:
1. Private practices are joining large hospital systems. The healthcare industry supply chain is selling to a less fragmented market. Hospital systems are increasingly shifting CME from outbound to inbound.
2.Patient outcomes, not procedures, are the new measurement for reimbursement. The latest research and science are taking a backseat to practice improvement in the era of affordable healthcare.
3.Pharma and medical device regulations and self-policing, both here and overseas, are shifting marketing spend away from large medical meetings, resulting in smaller booth sizes, fewer sponsorship and promotion dollars and less funding of large contingencies of international registrants.
Meetings where education is primarily research- and science-based are the ones that will experience the greatest disruption. They will attract fewer practicing healthcare professionals who are interested in learning how to best navigate the new patient-friendly reimbursement model. The "speakers speaking to speakers" business model attracts faculty and students, but not the mid-career practitioner who is critical for sustainability.
We're continuing our webinar series at 2:00 PM EDT on Tuesday, September 20. The topic will be The Highly Energized and Engaged Conference Experience, presented by Jeff Hurt EVP, Education and Engagement. If you'd like to participate, click hereto review and register.
Here are 10 techniques that will help you align your scientific and medical meetings educational activities with the needs of your adult learners.
One strategy:
Educational research shows that group learning improves individual behavior, even when individuals are not learning with people who are actually in their practices.
To meet the learning needs of clinicians in today's healthcare environment, educators need to design activities that are learner-centric, rather than teacher-centric, and incorporate opportunities for interaction and reflection. Interprofessional continuing education gives physicians the opportunity to build the competencies for team-based practice.
Patients are part of the healthcare team, and including patients as CME speakers can engage physicians' hearts as well as their minds, says Graham T. McMahon, M.D., president and CEO of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. "Small steps in educational design can make a big difference."
Medical meetings' organizers and hosts can't wait for a two- to five-year change cycle. They need to practice agility and pivioting with their programming now.
The medical profession is shifting to outcomes-based medicine due to healthcare reform. Therefore faculty can't continue to offer research-driven information sessions that lack how to effectively apply that research to their practice and patients.
Evidence-based medicine includes three key components: research-based evidence, clinical expertise (i.e., the clinician's accumulated experience, knowledge, and clinical skills), and the patient's values and preferences.
Practicing evidence-based medicine is important in today's healthcare environment because this model of care offers clinicians a way to achieve the objectives of improved quality, improved patient satisfaction and reduced costs.
The state of the art when it comes to continuing professional development activities for healthcare professionals once was a room full of learners sitting silently while a lecturer read from slides from a stage.
But just as the U.S. Constitution needed amending as the young country developed, resulting in the U.S. Bill of Rights, so does the contract between healthcare learner and CPD provider need to adapt to the ever-shifting U.S. healthcare system data."
