The medical conferences of the future made a preview appearance at this year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics annual meeting in San Francisco. Paperless, electronic, interactive, and definitely high tech it was.
Every paid attendee was offered a new Samsung tablet computer, preloaded with pertinent apps and information, to personalize and keep if they wanted or return at the end of the meeting. If attendees preferred to download the apps to their own devices, that was fine too, and many of them did. (I got a loaner through the press room, and found it easy to use.)
Sherry Boschert/IMNG Medical Media
TCT attendees use their tablets between sessions.
Rather than tack the cost of the tablets onto registration fees, the organizers shifted funds from the no-longer-needed bulky printed programs and other materials to pay for the tablets, according to the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, cosponsor of the TCT meeting with the American College of Cardiology. No funds from industry were solicited for the tablets, no advertising appeared on the home screens, and the tablets were not being used to mine for user data of any kind, but the preloaded apps did contain some advertisements.
Paperless medical conferences are not new – many conferences eschew pulp these days, providing materials on zip drives instead of printed programs that attendees can load onto their computers. And apps for the larger medical conferences now are commonplace, too, for those who have their own smartphones or tablets. But this is the first time I’ve seen a conference give out tablets and include interactive social media features, convenient continuing medical education mechanisms, and more.
Through the apps, attendees could navigate the convention center; view abstracts; download speaker slides and disclosures; watch live cases; take notes; contact some faculty; find shuttle buses, hotels, and restaurants; and access exhibition materials. After attending a session, they could log their hours, write a review, and apply for CME credits through the apps. If they were willing to enable certain settings, they could see who else at the meeting was in their vicinity, and communicate with them.
Sherry Boschert/IMNG Medical Media
A large video screen shows live tweets during a TCT session.
Each of the major sessions I covered included a "digital moderator" in addition to the regular moderator. Instead of standing in line at microphones to ask questions, members of the audience texted comments and questions that appeared on a screen to the side of the main screen showing the presenter’s slides, so everyone could see them in real time. This feature wasn’t as much used as one might fear – doctors were still paying attention to the speaker, not staring down at their devices, for the most part. From what I could see, the digital moderators provided most of the texted comments and questions, though at one session the live moderator noted that audience texts were asking the speaker to comment about stroke risk, so he raised the question.
Keep in mind, the TCT always has been one of the most high-tech conferences happening in a very high-tech specialty, interventional cardiology. The typical setup in their main forum was similar to that in past meetings, a multitasking-palooza featuring a long dais of speakers and multiple video screens, with individual headsets that let you tune into whichever "channel" interests you most at the moment. Screens with live cases flank either end, with the presenter and his or her slides in the middle and screens promoting upcoming sessions and showing the audience texts in between the other screens.
TCT comes to San Francisco regularly because the city has the infrastructure to support these technologic demands, a spokeswoman in their press room told me. Some other locations haven’t been able to handle their needs.
I wondered if the technology will be so appealing that attendees might prefer virtual attendance rather than having to be there. It’s possible, she said, but unlikely. Like most people, these doctors value their face time.
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