Forum key takeaways:

The 2014 Healthcare Meetings Forum Asia focused on the evolving nature of medical meetings in Asia, highlighting the challenges posed by regulatory compliance, shifting funding models, and the need for enhanced patient care. Emphasis was placed on collaborative dialogue among stakeholders to foster ethical and effective scientific communication.

1. Regulatory Compliance: Adapting Western compliance frameworks to Asian contexts is challenging due to cultural and systemic differences.
2. Funding Models: Declining corporate sponsorships necessitate creative approaches to maintain education and best practices.
3. Patient-Centric Focus: Ensuring patient outcomes are prioritized amidst regulatory and funding changes.
4. Stakeholder Collaboration: Dialogue among industry, medical societies, and regulators is crucial for addressing evolving meeting formats and compliance.
5. Educational Content: Transition from promotional to educational content, with a preference for interactive, tech-enabled, and smaller, specialized meetings.

Please note the view in this report reflect the views and content available at the time.  In some cases the conclusions have been realised or changed in the time since their creation.

1. Ongoing Dialogue: Continuous conversation among stakeholders is essential beyond the forum.
2. Quality over Quantity: Focus on high-quality, targeted events rather than the number of events and attendees.
3. Positive Compliance: Compliance drives productive directions in healthcare meetings.
4. Evolving Promotion: Pharma needs to measure returns in terms of engagement with prescribing influencers, not just commercial impact.
5. Scientific Education: A common focus on scientific education benefits both medical and commercial interests.
6. Event Roles: Further exploration needed on the roles of large congresses, mid-size, and smaller targeted events.
7. Compliance Management: Corporate sponsors must address all compliance aspects, not just logistics.
8. Sponsorship Value: Communicating the value of corporate sponsorship to senior management is critical.
9. Multi-Channel Balance: The right balance of multi-channel and social media support for healthcare meetings needs to be defined.
10. Compliance Responsibility: Determining where compliance responsibility lies—pharma, agencies, venues, or healthcare providers—requires further discussion.