As the main ballroom fills up at the annual medical society meeting, attendees—facing the front in homage to the great screens—wait patiently, rifling through their syllabi and scrolling through e-mails on their smartphones. Anticipation builds until the room finally darkens and the experts begin sharing their latest basic science or clinical data. In an hour, the lights go back on, and the attendees file out to their next activity.

Of the thousands attending the annual meeting, how many were actually in the room for that presentation? Of those in the room, how many immediately understand the impact of the new findings? And how many of those are in a position to make the changes needed to put that new knowledge to work once they return to the clinic? And what about the hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals who weren’t in room—how will they learn about the new data? How will they find its relevance to their practice setting? And how will they find the resources to integrate these new data into practice?

What Happens When an Annual Medical Meeting Ends?
We can no longer wait the years it may take for that data to trickle down from the annual meeting into standard practice—quality healthcare care is too important to have to rely on the vagaries of the natural flow of information. And we need to find ways to ensure that the new types of medical data and information we are introducing (comparative effectiveness, individualized genomics, patient-reported outcomes, etc.) don’t overwhelm our existing systems for sharing and disseminating new medical information.

Instead of relying on a natural flow of information from annual meetings, what if we could engineer an “aqueduct system” of medical information sharing? One that could be controlled, accelerated, and prioritized as needed? What if we could engineer the flow of medical information to ensure it was timely, widely available, and responsive to local needs?

What Is the Current State of Information Flow?
Let’s look at how new medical information is now being disseminated, where the system tends to fail, and how a newly engineered system can more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the medical and CME communities.

Post-meeting information flow
Traditional Media Coverage— From the headlines of USA Today, to the breaking CNN (and CNBC) coverage from the floor of the Annual Meeting, the “news” of the societal (and financial) impact of new medical data often makes it to the general population much faster than it is shared throughout the medical community. Within hours, new information may be printed off the CNN Web site and carried into the office of an unsuspecting healthcare professional by a newly “empowered” patient. Unfortunately, what the traditional media chooses to cover and how they choose to cover it rarely has any relevance to a local care setting or to an individual patient. Nonetheless, for many HCPs the first word from the Annual Meeting may come, either directly or indirectly, from media outlets.

This Wordle illustrates the frequency and weight of words used in this article.

Expert Invited to Lecture Locally (Reactive)—Driving home, Dr. A hears about the new data on the radio, finds the data compelling, and wants to know more. Since she is in charge of her hospital’s grand rounds program, she invites one of the experts to give the same presentation from the meeting on the earliest date possible, which happens to be several months later. Dr. A doesn’t offer information on the local situation surrounding this condition, and the expert doesn’t ask. The topic may have no relevance to the actual needs of the institution, but having the visiting expert does allow for local clinicians to ask some of their pressing questions—if they feel comfortable doing so in the public setting.

Attendees of National Meetings Report Back Locally (Reactive)—Dr. B hears the same radio broadcast and decides he had better provide a summary to his colleagues of what he learned at the Annual Meeting. He delegates local clinicians who attended with him to give talks that highlight ”best of” lessons. He includes what was in the media even though he didn’t think it was the most important lesson learned. The speakers have a few weeks to create talks from memory or from content they find online. They are rarely experts in the new data, but they are familiar with local practices and this may provide a local context or flavor to the presentations. The local speakers may not have all the answers, but the live meeting allows for an extended discussion of local relevance.

Attendees Proactively Plan Reporting—Dr. C, as part of the CME quality committee, knows there are significant problems with patients in his practice setting and that the Annual Meeting on the topic is coming up. So, two to three months before the Annual Meeting, the education planning committee meets with the quality departments and begins planning and prioritizing local needs that may be addressed at the Annual Meeting. Attendees are then tasked with collecting, curating, and interpreting new information, or new data on which to base factual presentations. These “reporters,” who have a few weeks to create talks from their notes and on-site conversations, can hold a productive conversation about the local impact of these lessons.

Society Web Site/Repurposed Content—Session in Full.
Dr. D, who works in a rural area, is proficient at making the most of distance learning because she can’t afford the time or money involved in attending the Annual Meeting. She becomes aware of the new data from an e-mail blast and subsequently goes directly to the association’s Web site. The organizers of the Annual Meeting captured the presentations and immediately archived them as slides synced with audio. Because Dr. D can’t ask questions, she isn’t sure exactly how to apply the new data to her patients’ situation, but she knows about it now and continues to contemplate how to incorporate it into her practice. While on the site, she sees other sessions that look interesting and notes them for later reference.

Society Web Site/Repurposed Content—Integrated Into Learning Portfolio. In the days that follow the Annual Meeting, Dr. E expresses frustration about his challenging patients to a colleague in the cafeteria. His colleague, who was unable to attend, suggests he could get more insight on the topic from the association Web site. He promptly forgets the conversation until he runs into another challenging patient 30 days later. Searching the site, he finds he can watch all 35 hours of the meeting, but he only has 30 minutes before his next patient, so he gives up.

Luckily, the meeting organizers decided long before the event to ensure that the lessons from the meeting were captured and integrated in their associations’ online learning portal. Over the following weeks and months, the organizers systematically interpret the captured sessions and edit them to be more engaging and interactive. Individual learners can customize their learning experience so they can find answers more quickly—when questions are discreet—and the organizer makes an effort to make the faculty more available to answer questions and interact individually. All lessons and interactions are archived in a portfolio manner to support life-long learning. However, it takes four to six months and thousands of dollars to get this format up online. A friend of Dr. E eventually forwards an e-mail link to these activities, and he uses them to figure out how to approach his patients more effectively.

Non-traditional Media Coverage—Bloggers. After returning to her hotel room each night at the Annual Meeting, Dr. F writes down what she found to be the most important data and why, and she posts it to her blog from her iPad. Her nontraditional media reach is far smaller than traditional media, but her readers are an engaged and interested audience. The commentary is lively and continues over time, giving time for reflection.

The impact of this nontraditional coverage is increasingly becoming similar to that of traditional media coverage and, in clinical areas with a highly empowered blogger community, may be the most credible source of new medical information and data. What the nontraditional media chooses to cover and how they choose to cover it may have little relevance to a local care setting or to an individual patient; nonetheless, for many HCPs, the first word from the Annual Meeting may come, either directly or indirectly, from the coverage of these social media outlets. One advantage of nontraditional coverage is that the blogger herself is more likely to be willing to engage in a discussion and HCPs may reach out directly to the source if they have questions.

“Best of” Volumes/Editorials in Print or Web—Six months after the Annual Meeting while waiting for his next flight, Dr. G runs across an editorial summarizing the information in his favorite peer-reviewed medical journal. End of story; that's all the information he ever gets on the topic. Whether crafted by the experts themselves, journal editors, or medical writers, the buzz at the Annual Meeting is rehashed in a new format. The local impact of these lessons is unknown to the authors, and it is up to the individual readers/participants to make sense of the lessons as they relate to their own situation and circumstances. These activities do not allow any interactivity, and participants have no opportunity to ask questions that may be unique to their experience or local setting.