New York, NY — 2017 has marked a major shift in the way pharmaceutical giant Novartis will be using and expanding innovative digital platforms to share major congress experiences, education and medical information with physicians. They are making significant investment into the virtual conference platform Vivinda TV that delivers on-demand medical content to healthcare professionals around the world and the results are promising.
The largest oncology conference, The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) saw 4,600 registrations from virtual delegates in 103 countries. The European School for Advanced Studies in Ophthalmology drew 1,800 virtual delegates, which are three times as many that attend these events in person.
“Instead of bringing physicians to congresses the old way, we’re now bringing the congress to the physician, and we’re doing that through a device, a vehicle, that we call Vivinda TV. We’re finding that we can exponentially increase the number of physicians that we can bring this medical information to at a fraction of the cost.” Novartis CEO Joe Jiminez
The only thing lacking is true global access. Currently, healthcare providers in any country except Canada, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the U.S can access the platform.
Even though these virtual environments have appeal and purpose there still remains a strong need for face-to-face interactions when dealing with medical devices that require a high-level of expertise and training. Novartis is providing that very training at their education complex in Texas, which includes a fully equipped optometric training area, labs for training in the ophthalmic surgical environment and a variety of interactive and innovative cataract and laser eye surgery technologies.
Why This Matters:
It’s a communications trend we’ve been following that shows the constant stream of new medical information has become impossible to keep up with. Medical professionals are looking to experts in industry to curate and deliver the critical content they need in ways that are easier to consume. And with fewer sales rep interactions and big budget meetings these new digital platforms will continue to redefine the interactions between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals.
This kind of innovation will be something to watch and in the near future we will see other major pharmaceutical brands try and innovate in this space or be left behind.
