Rules, regulations and innovations in the design of medical meetings
In 2019, Radiological Society of North America drew 51,800 people to McCormick Place in Chicago. An estimated 25,000 were medical professional attendees from 116 countries. And that was just one of an estimated 30,000 gatherings of doctors, nurses and specialists that happened that year. As attendees start returning to medical meetings in person to learn about new treatments and procedures, it may be time for a check-up to ensure your conferences are complying with all rules and regulations and effectively delivering the education they were designed to impart.
Understanding the limitations and opportunities available to you starts with knowing your audience. Planning an advisory board or annual shareholder meeting brings very different requirements than planning a product launch, educational dinner, conference or internal training. Understanding who is attending—doctors, para-medical professionals or pharmacists for instance—will impact how you budget for everything from venue to gifts and catering.
“You can’t do anything you want when you plan medical meetings or medical events,” says Valerie Bihet, CEO of VIBE Agency, a veteran planner who has planned events such as Merck, Thea Pharmaceuticals.
When planning medical events, meeting professionals are required to comply with “Sunshine Act” laws and their equivalent in each state and country. Bihet and Andrew Hoag, category manager for commercial meetings and events with Biogen in Boston were quick to point out that despite the limitations, events—virtual and in-person—can still be powerful tools for engaging busy audiences and advancing knowledge.
The Eye of the Beholder
Value as measured by The Sunshine Act in California, Vermont, Minnesota, Maine and Philadelphia and its equivalents in other states with variations even between some cities, means anything provided for free to a health care provider. That can include payment, food, entertainment travel, subscriptions, advances or services and those amounts are limited to “allowable expenditures” seen as reimbursing the cost at “fair market value.” Costs for everything else must fall under the category of “fair and reasonable.”
“You can’t do anything you want when you plan medical meetings or medical events.”
– Valerie Bihet, CEO of VIBE Agency
Behit narrowed down the intent of all these variations in detail to “Three Big Rulers” of the medical meetings industry. “The respect of medical ethics, the respect of confidentiality and avoidance of conflicts of interests.”
Researching rules and regulations is even more important if you are planning a meeting internationally. Every country has different rules on what you can spend on a medical meeting and that can change if you have attendees from several different countries.
Read More: How to Plan Better Medical Meetings by the Numbers
“You’d laugh if I told you that in France, you can’t spend more than €70 when you invite adopters,” says Behit, “and you cannot spend more than €300 on the obtained room. So, if your intention is to have international doctors and physicians, you have to take this into consideration.”
Producing events internationally can affect your budget in many different ways. There can sometimes be limitations to what sort of food and beverage options are available for the place you have chosen. Behit says this can sometimes lead to the “lowest common denominator” food being the only options meeting professionals and caterers have.
Bottom Line: Always check with Policymed.com and local health codes of conduct to determine the limitations in the destination you are considering.
Critical Care
When inflationary pressures collide with regulatory limitations, the result can be uninspired meeting room boxes and bland meals, but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Behit suggested adjustments such as passed hors d’oeuvres and shorter receptions rather than high-priced seated meals or galas. “For added flair, bring in a bartender,” she advised. Activating drink stations doesn’t require pouring expensive liquor. More groups are opting for mocktails to save money and emphasize that the event is about education rather than entertainment.
To augment decor in a stark room, Behit suggested planning a team-building activity such as flower arranging that will leave colorful artifacts behind.
Another strategy for adding interest without spending anything is to employ storytelling in presentations. Paired with an abundance of visuals, a compelling narrative can hold attention in any room. “You need to capture the audience’s attention right from the beginning,” she said. “Engage them with storytelling, anecdotes, real events, statistics, compelling infographics, provoking question to grab their interest. Don’t allow them to just be passive bystanders. That is not expensive, but takes some planning.”
Never Fear
Hoag stressed the importance of getting beyond the myth that doctors are afraid of technology. Millennials are doctors now, he reminded us. They are very comfortable with iPads, tablets and online tools.
Biogen still employes a “hub and spoke approach” for training by streaming a broadcast from a single destination to attendees watching from their offices to save time and money.
Read More: Helpful Technology for the Organized Traveler
Whether in-person or remote, Hoag leverages technology to measure whether attendees are retaining information. In the middle of a training session, attendees will be asked to respond to a question about the material and a follow-up question: “How certain are you that you have the right answer?” That way they can follow up with people who had the wrong answer, but were, “very confident.”
Apps such as Kahoot! can be customized to bring gamification and insight to presentations. A lot of venues have amazing AV technology in place that they can use at no cost if you are curious and ask their teams questions about how it could be adapted for your content.
“Checking for understanding and verifying that what you’re trying to get through to people has actually landed is so important because that’s why you’re doing it the first place,” he said.
Another way Hoag uses technology to share information while still conforming to all regulations is the use of augmented reality. For a while, there was a trend to have attendees wear headsets for virtual reality, but Covid kind of killed that and it had equipment cost limitations. However, augmented reality uses a delegate’s phone to point at what looks like an ordinary trade show booth. But through the lens of the camera’s eye, dynamic content shows up that attendees can click on. They can engage or save videos for viewing later. It is a digital footprint of what you are trying to share that they can take with them.
“It is all compliant because they are taking the initiative to view,” Hoag said. Then added, “Do work through your organization’s compliance team to make sure that they’re all comfortable with the approach, but there’s a lot of really neat things that can be done with augmented reality now. It can save you a lot of money in your tradeshow booths by not having to outfit them with giant video screens.”
One Essential Thing
Asked what one thing could elevate medical meetings, Hoag pointed to the power of being willing to try and explore things. “You know your audience best and where you are able to take risks with technology,” he said.
At the same time, he also implored planners to continue doing the basics. “Document everything you do because there are going to be times and circumstances where things happen that weren’t anticipated and you have to react in the moment,” he said. What’s important is that you document those actions to show that you have the approval hierarchy that you need. That way years from now when everyone has moved on to other positions, if there is an audit about why this happened, there’s a very clear chain of actions and approval. “Just cover yourself by showing you did the right thing by the organization and by the doctor.”
Bihet stressed understanding the rules going into an event. “Be ready and educate yourself so you are compliant in all things,” she said.
This article appears in the digital-only July and July/August 2023 issue. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
