Medical Education - Planning for Success

Planning Medical Education meetings can be part of the bread and butter activities you do in Medical Affairs.  So often though golden opportunities are missed by Medical Affairs teams who are running these events.  I’ve seen many teams view them as a stand alone activity without looking at how much value they can add to the overall brand and Medica strategies.  Consider them as one part of your overall strategy, just one stepping stone to achieve your objective.  They are a valuable tactic to boost engagement and deliver value to your customers.  To really get the most out of your Medical Education meetings there are a few steps to complete in advance.  Keep reading to find out how you can plan for success when creating Medical Education!

Considerations for planning successful Medical Education

Considerations for planning successful Medical Education

Get crystal clear on your objective

What do you want the outcome of this meeting to be?  Are you trying to shift mindsets, educate on standards of care, provoke discussion on a certain topic?

You need to know your objective before you figure out the rest of the steps.

Know your audience

Who is this meeting for?  Is it for all healthcare professionals or only a set few? Think of the right audience who will help you achieve your objective.  

Selecting your topic

What are your audience's key knowledge gaps in relation to your objective? Once you know that you can pick your topic.  Consider a steering committee - key opinion leaders who have their finger on the pulse can create an agenda for Medical Education events that really addresses their peers' knowledge gaps.

Selecting your format

This will depend on your topic, your audience, your geography.  Will it be in-person or online?  Will you use workshops or presentation style?  There is no limit to the type of Medical Education formats you use. 

Timing and location of the meeting

Is there a time and a date for Medical Education that suits your audience best?  This is another area where a steering committee can help.  Make sure that you send the invite out well in advance so that you can maximise the engagement and ensure the greatest attendance.   

 How can you maximise your outcomes?

• What else can you do to maximise the impact of your Medica Education?

• Will you record the meeting for use at a later date? 

• Will you have a medical writer create a report that you or your MSLs can deliver at a later date to re-embed the learnings? 

The best time to consider this is at the planning stage - it makes it so much easier in the long run!  Trying to get retrospective compliance approval is time-consuming and inefficient.  

How will you measure impact?

Honestly, this is a step that is often undervalued and poorly executed by Medical Affairs teams running Medical Education.  If you really want to demonstrate the impact that Medical Affairs brings then you need to consider what information you will capture.  Always add a feedback form! The key to success though is making sure you ask the right questions.  We don't mean rate the meeting from 1-10, but asking questions such as “Will this change your clinical practice?” “Are there any current barriers to you implementing this in practice?”.  Another nice way to capture impact is to run polls at the beginning and end of your meeting.    Don't stop there though.  Ask for feedback when you meet attendees after the meeting.  Clients I work with sometimes use QR codes at the meeting which allows attendees to complete the feedback for Medical Education events online.  A top tip is to ensure people fill the feedback out before they leave the meeting, as it is always harder to get people to complete it after the fact. 

The key thing to remember when measuring impact in Medical Education.  is checking back in to see if you achieved your initial objective.

Other considerations when planning Medical Education

There are a number of steps involved when planning Medical Education, from logistics, to speaker engagement, sending out invites, and slide preparation.  It definitely helps to plan out a timeline when you are doing your Medical plan or strategy.  When supporting clients Medical Affairs teams in creating their Medical Strategies this is one thing I emphasise -  look at the date that you your event to happen and then reverse engineer your timelines!  This also allows you to check if your plans are on track, gives you more flexibility and helps you manage the activities with your other workload.

Why not consider branding your Medical Activities - not with product branding, we don’t want to cross the line into promotional, but having a similar look and feel for all your Medical Education Meetings and activities.  The benefit is that customers will recognise that this is being run by your Medical Team and they will start to build a positive association along with it.  Remember you don’t want it to be a standalone event, you want it to be one more building block to support improving standards of care for patients.  

While this article focuses on Medical Education events, there are other mediums through which you can deliver Medical Education. It is worth keeping that in mind, that Medical Education materials can also provide value. This is something that often gets overlooked by teams. I’ve seen this first hand how Medical Education materials that I created as a Medical Lead had impact in the field.

Grab your free copy of our Planning for Success Checklist

We’ve created a checklist to support you in planning Medical Education meetings - looking at before, during and after an event.  To get your Free copy head over to the resources section on our website (https://www.wolfmedical.ie/resources) and access it under Planning for Success checklist.

Maximise your own Medical Affairs Education and get inspiration!
If you are interested in learning more about how to get the most out of your Medical Education plans, and access to case studies on best practice from other Medical Affairs teams our Medical Impact Membership launching in May 2024 is perfect for you. 

Our Medical Impact Membership is aimed at Medical Leads looking to level up their skill set and will provide training and discussion around hot topics in Medical every two months. As well as our regular training calls there will be the opportunity for support for all your Medical Affairs questions in between the calls.  Spaces are limited to 10 per group and registration closes on the 10th of May 2024.  Email info@wolfmedical.ie for more information or to register now!