How we evaluated the impact of ‘remote’ versus ‘in-person’ conference attendance

The challenge

As well as covering ‘standard’ measures of the impact of conference on physicians’ clinical thinking in two indications of interest, our client also wished to understand two issues of ‘how conference content works’: Firstly, they wanted to measure how the experience of physicians accessing conference content remotely (‘virtual conference’) differed from that of physicians who had attended in person. Secondly, the impact of the ‘passage of time’ on conference reactions was to be studied.

Our solution

We conducted follow-up research in two waves among physicians from 4 EU markets who had either attended in person and screened for their active management of patients in both atrial fibrillation and hypercholesterolaemia. The first wave of the research was launched immediately following the meeting (from the evening of the final day of conference, lasting for 12 days) and the second wave nearly one month later (lasting for 14 days).

The results

Combined, the two waves of research provided data from n=239 respondents, which served as a solid basis for analysis of the evaluation of key aspects of our client’s presence at the congress, as well as reactions to specific new data for emerging products in dyslipidemia and atrial fibrillation. Subgroup analysis then provided insight on the extent to which remote access to congress content could inform clinical thinking, relative to in-person attendance and whether additional ‘live’ elements (such as booths) served to add to physician impressions. The majority of ‘remote’ viewers of conference content had attended the meeting in previous years and were able to provide their own comparative evaluation. Attendance/viewership of key meetings yielded an understanding of the attractiveness of key presentations and detailed, structured evaluation delivered an understanding of successes and shortcomings in our client’s conference presence across both therapy areas of interest.

For more information about Conference Research, contact john.branston@researchpartnership.com