How AstraZeneca Plans to Bring Medical Meetings to Everyone via Social Media
For decades, medical meetings have been a place for doctors, patients, researchers and advocates to engage with each other and share information about the latest advances in treatments and science.
That engagement level has exploded over the last few years, however, with the rise of social media. Now, attendees can talk not only to others in the meeting hall but also in every corner of the globe.
How important has social media grown to become at medical meetings? Consider: The 2013 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting saw 4,352 different people tweet 21,861 times using the #ASCO13 hashtag throughout the year. Two years later, the #ASCO15 meeting was mentioned in 81,273 tweets from 16,664 people – a nearly four-fold increase.
AstraZeneca once again will participate in major meetings in our therapeutic areas this year, including ASCO, AHA, ACC, ADA and several others. In addition to our live presence at the meetings, we hope to accomplish the following through our social engagement:
Conduct live, authentic dialogue with those in attendance as well as those following along virtually.Share our messages and resources with an informed, engaged audience.Continue conversations begun face to face in the meeting halls.Glean key areas of focus of those affected by the diseases being studied to better inform our efforts as a company.
It is increasingly crucial for all players in healthcare to be engaged in social media, as more and more Americans use these platforms.
Astrazeneca has been a pioneer in hosting authentic Twitter chats. read, for example, “OMG! AstraZeneca Hosts Twitter Chat & World Does NOT End!”; http://bit.ly/AZpharmachat