New Survey Reveals Physicians’ Meetings Insights

NEW YORK — When it comes to physicians’ perspective on meeting and event preferences and common practices, content is king and the most popular meeting types are speaker dinners and symposia, according to the results of a global survey released by American Express Meetings & Events, it was announced June 13.

Doctor’s Orders: The Physician’s Perspective on Meetings and Events surveyed 505 doctors worldwide to help pharmaceutical companies better understand the elements of the meetings that attract physicians today and what will motivate them to attend in the future.

Physicians cite content as two of the top three most important considerations when deciding whether to attend a meeting — access to new information and the opportunity to earn CME credits.

While physicians consider content to be a critical factor when deciding to attend a meeting, they also select it as the most important element meeting organizers should work to improve. Presentation format, use of mobile technology and opportunities to connect with other attendees are other areas physicians feel could be enhanced.

Respondents acknowledged that they most frequently attend speaker dinners (67%), followed by symposia (66%), congresses (53%) and product meetings (52%).

Investigator meetings and data monitoring committees were the least popular meeting formats in 2015, garnering 24% and 17% attendance rates, respectively.

Doctors have no shortage of meetings to attend and the survey found that, on average, respondents were invited to 16 meetings in 2015, but only attended half that number. It’s therefore important for meeting organizers to understand what attracts physicians to some meetings, but not others.

Respondents acknowledged that they receive many benefits by attending medical meetings, the most important of which is access to information that will help their practice. This was noted by 74% of survey respondents. The least important benefit, at 39%, was sharing research and experience with others in their field.

In light of this, physicians strongly prefer formats that will facilitate acquiring new information. Workshops and breakout sessions were deemed superior to panel, single speaker and audience response formats.