Interest in attending sponsored speaker programs in a traditional dinner program format is waning, says medical meetings producer Pri-Med. Across 37 Pri-Med events in 2010, nearly 8,000 physicians opted into at least one pharma-sponsored promotional speaker program, the firm said. A 2009 survey completed by physicians as they were leaving branded programs at 12 meetings suggested higher numbers.
Who’s the typical clinician sitting in on these events? According to a 2010 study of 2,238 speaker program attendees, there were only slight demographic differences between those clinicians who opted into sponsored speaker programs and those who did not.
Program attendees skewed slightly more toward hospital-based or hospital-owned practices. In addition, many were active and “high value” to industry (read: high-prescribing).
It’s well known that more office practices are putting up barriers to sales reps. Nearly one in three physicians is hard to reach, Pri-Med says, meaning they are either heavily restrictive or don’t see reps at all.
Away from their practices, though, it’s a different story. Pri-Med found that physicians who are most restrictive regarding while in practice, often do opt in to branded speaker programs when already at an event where these promotional programs are available: three-quarters of “restricted” physicians and 58% of “no-see” physicians attended at least one promotional program.
From the May 01, 2011 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
