KEY TAKEAWAYS

• MedTech compliance now centres on education, not promotion—early vetting is key.
• Future meetings must shift from information delivery to emotional, transformative experiences.
• Pre- and post-meeting engagement using AI, storytelling, and gamification boosts long-term impact.

A recent report from the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) on The Future of Healthcare Meetings 2024, held in Zurich, offers critical insights for pharma and medical technology professionals navigating the future of scientific events. Discussions centred on designing meetings for lasting impact, aligning with evolving compliance frameworks, and extending educational engagement across the full event lifecycle.

Designing for new generations: meeting formats must evolve

In a panel hosted by the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, experts from life sciences, congress planning, and preventive medicine emphasised that medical meetings must shift from lecture-heavy formats to experiences built around interaction and flexibility. To meet the needs of younger healthcare professionals—who seek work-life balance and digest content differently—sessions should be shorter, wellness oriented, and digitally enabled.

Medical meetings must shift from lecture-heavy formats to experiences built around interaction and flexibility.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms are seen as essential to delivering these “experience meetings”, supporting personalised learning and inclusive participation. The design of meeting spaces and formats should follow suit, prioritising delegate experience and sustainability.

Compliance as strategic currency: pharma’s role is evolving

A dedicated compliance session brought together voices from International Pharmaceutical Congress Advisory Association, European Society of Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy, Congrex, and others to explore how changing regulations are reshaping pharma’s involvement in medical meetings. A key trend is the move from traditional sponsorship to educational grants, with industry support often contingent on final Conference Vetting System approval.

Speakers stressed that early collaboration and a shared understanding of compliance codes (European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, local legislation) are vital. Medical technology firms are taking a firmer stance on excluding promotional elements, focusing strictly on educational value. Workshops showed that building internal compliance expertise—particularly within medical societies—is crucial for fostering trust and enabling agile, regulation-compliant event planning.

Extending impact: engagement beyond the conference hall

A session led by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation showcased how events can maintain momentum post-meeting. Case studies featured AI-driven storytelling, gamified escape rooms, and hybrid learning environments that personalise and extend the learning journey. These strategies support long-term behavioural change and reflect a growing shift toward continuous engagement rather than isolated events.

Brief context: wider healthcare and communication trends

Opening remarks from Felix Strobl (European Society of Preventive Medicine) framed healthcare’s shift to a “4Ps” model:

• Preventive
• Personalised
• Predictive
• Participatory.

Other speakers addressed inefficiencies in science communication (Dr Mike Morrison), the psychology of emotional design (Pigalle Tavakkoli), and the evolving role of medical societies as cross-sector conveners (Daniel Palomo and panel).

Together, these themes reinforce a shared direction: medical meetings must become more meaningful, measurable, and compliant—designed not just to inform, but to transform.

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Video content is increasingly popular, propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, and with 80% of social media users browsing health-related information, the pharmaceutical industry is leveraging the format more and more.

In a recent article in Medical Writing, Ekaterina Bulaeva and Amalia Iljasova gave a case study on Industry Voice, a YouTube project created specifically for the professional healthcare community. The content featured includes interviews with leaders in the pharmaceutical and clinical research industries, who share their opinions on current trends and insights into research landscape issues. The channel has generated over 10,000 views since its launch in October 2019, and the videos have proven to engage their relatively niche audience, drive sales, and add brand value.

So, how did they do it? The key considerations in the process included:

• Topic selection: the authors combined survey results with other market research and internal expertise to select relevant content for their target audience.
• Choice of speakers: after initially using internal experts, the authors branched out to interviewing guests from across the pharmaceutical industry and international experts in clinical research.
• Location and format: COVID-19 restrictions forced the interviews to be conducted remotely, which proved to be an effective format.
• Results and analytics: analysing video view statistics over time allowed the authors to better understand their global audience and to determine optimal video length, topic trends, and the impact of cross-platform promotion.

Bulaeva and Iljasova went on to share pragmatic tips on building a company presence on social media, including how to create a strategy and content plan, optimise the frequency and length of videos, make the most of platform algorithms, and ensure the tone and content are appropriate and adequately briefed to the speakers.

With video expected to overtake text as the most common content type on the internet in the coming years, we are excited to follow future uptake of this format across the healthcare industry.

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In an article for the International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP)’s The MAP newsletter, Gretchen Chidester and Alexandra Traut consider ways to make a global scientific communication platform (SCP) relevant to regional stakeholders.

They recommend that regional stakeholders are engaged early in the development process to allow for cohesive integration of their needs throughout the development of the document, rather than attempting retrograde fitting of content to the regional situation. This should include regional participation in insight generation activities such as gap analyses, literature reviews and scientific expert interviews.

“As the SCP is…intended to provide a foundation for all medical and scientific communications, it is important to ensure that the SCP accurately and adequately represents the needs of a broad range of internal stakeholders, including regional affiliates”

SCPs may need to emphasise either disease burden and differential diagnosis or real-world clinical evidence, depending on regional variation in product approval, highlight product differentiation to account for changing competitor landscapes and consider the patient journey in terms of in-country reimbursement processes. While regional stakeholders often include country medical directors, medical science liaison personnel, market access teams and health economic and outcomes researchers may provide more in-depth insights.

Top-level statements in the SCP are likely to describe the scientific story elements at the global level, whereas supporting statements provide the best opportunity to tailor to the regional situation due to the greater level of detail. Similarly, some pillars will be globally applicable, such as disease pathology, while other pillars, such as those addressing burden of disease, are more likely to benefit from region-specific considerations. When adapting the value pillar for regional applicability, publication managers may want to focus on clinical value rather than purely economic statements (which may be addressed in regional value dossiers) or develop secondary, region-specific statements. In addition, careful consideration of the lexicon in the context of cultural considerations should ensure that there are no potentially unintended connotations in the scientific messages.

In line with the initial development of the SCP, updates scheduled at regular intervals should engage regional stakeholders and meet their evolving needs. Surveys can show what has been most helpful and what could be done further to optimise regional implementation. The authors suggest that useful questions in preparation for these updates could include:

• Have any region-specific data (eg efficacy within a specific population) been generated that should be incorporated?
• Have there been any changes to the approved indication(s) or the competitive landscape that should be addressed?
• Have there been any changes to regional guidelines that should be integrated?

The authors note that making the SCP applicable to regional affiliates is a particularly worthwhile endeavour as these users often support multiple products, thus benefit greatly from having a scientific evidence base to leverage as they develop communications.

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Summary by Julianna Solomons PhD, CMPP from Aspire Scientific

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With thanks to our sponsor, Aspire Scientific Ltd

In their article, Sheard and Steeves provide a useful overview of the processes involved. A gap analysis must be well-planned, so the first step is to prospectively define the topics of interest. Sheard and Steeves suggest that insights from an initial analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) will help to inform the selection of topics. A literature review is then completed to identify existing publications of relevance. Following this, the identified publications are mapped against the pre-specified topics to identify gaps. Finally, any identified gaps feed back into the initial SWOT analysis; for example, areas of priority for data generation or publication identified by the gap analysis could be a potential opportunity for the SWOT analysis.

To conclude, Sheard and Steeves note that a gap analysis is just one aspect of publication plan development. Other factors to consider include the need for alternative publication types (such as review articles) and data availability. For instance, fast publication of data may be more important than the priorities suggested by the gap analysis.

What are your top tips for effective publication planning? Add your comments below.

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Summary by Emma Evans PhD from Aspire Scientific

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With thanks to our sponsors, Aspire Scientific Ltd and NetworkPharma Ltd