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Case study: 4 Sites – Navigating the course ahead

Developing an agenda to provide meaningful, practical education

Published: 13 Jan 2020

4 Sites case study

Client: SCITERION

Agency: N/A

Campaign: 4 Sites: Navigating the course ahead

Timescale: N/A

A quick look

Crohn’s disease – a chronic, debilitating and progressive disease – is on the increase worldwide, but remission rates remain disappointing. New strategies are needed to optimise outcomes; one such strategy is treat-to-target (T2T). A UK Steering Committee of Gastroenterology KOLs looked to develop an agenda to provide meaningful, practical education on T2T. Pre-meeting only 45% of respondents believed that T2T improved patient outcomes with 73% respondents rating their understanding of T2T in practice as below average.

Challenge

Our experience with national immunology meetings was that single-site, stand-alone meetings typically only attract up to 75 delegates and that 200+ attendees (about 10% of UK gastroenterology specialists) is the critical mass needed to help shift practice at a national level, rather than just in pockets. Qualitative research via the Steering Committee identified several key barriers:

  • Gastroenterology HCPs are reluctant to attend events that will impact their clinic times (especially morning clinics)
  • Gastroenterology service pathways are very different across the UK (especially across the devolved nations) and there is a perception that national meetings will not be relevant to their service
  • Delegates want practical advice on how to implement T2T in clinical practice; this can only come from the few national centres of excellence implementing it – we need to get them on board
  • Delegates want more from a stand- alone, including follow-up education via self-led remote learning, both on- demand and with live Q&A from KOLs.

Solution

We used innovative multisite technology to deliver a live RCP-accredited meeting to gastroenterologists across the UK. Partnering with top KOLs and a faculty of 32 health professionals, our aim was to further the belief in the concept and evidence behind T2T, while driving implementation of T2T in UK clinical practice through a follow-up programme.

The live meeting was broadcast across four main sites, with four additional satellite hubs. Top-down education from expert KOL speakers on new best-practice strategies acted as the spark to ignite the belief that a change in practice is needed, while grass-roots engagement was driven through local, engaged faculty at each site.

Key sessions were broadcast live nationally and interspersed with local workshop sessions to allow local faculty and delegates to share best practice, address the differing needs of the devolved nations and discuss practical implementation. The key message, ‘targets, timings, treatments’, conveyed how T2T can optimise patient outcomes. As T2T is a strategy that is above therapy class, above brand and can be used at any point in the patient journey, the simple message resonated with faculty and delegates.

The technology enabled innovative ‘sliding door case studies’, where the audience could guide the path the case study took. This allowed reflection on regional variations on practice at key points throughout the patient journeys, while the delegate- guided component was new to delegates and ensured a fresh angle on case study interaction and audience engagement. A post-meeting educational cascade programme was rolled out, to reinforce key messages and enable effective peer-to-peer led education.

Results

  • Achieved critical mass (200+ delegates) needed for change, with over 370 delegates registered and 310 attending on the day (55% over the target number of attendees on the day)
  • Most delegates (95%) agreed or strongly agreed that the meeting improved their understanding of translating T2T into clinical practice
  • Post-meeting, 71% of respondents felt ‘totally confident’ or ‘confident for most aspects’ (over >7/10) with regards to implementing the T2T concept (an increase of 44% compared to the 27% in the pre-meeting survey)
  • 36 independently driven HCP-led T2T peer-to-peer local meetings were delivered by HCPs independent of industry (20% increase against target of 30 meetings)
  • Demonstrated change in practice: development of 12 new T2T pathways
  • Clinical studies showed a 16% increase in remission for patients using a T2T approach. Metrics show an increased belief in, and implementation of T2T following this meeting, translating into better CD patient outcomes.

Client verdict

“We are very proud of the success of this meeting. There was a clear unmet educational need which this meeting fulfilled. The faculty and delegate feedback has been phenomenal. To get engagement you need to be engaging and this stand- alone meeting has certainly been that.” Matt Vine, Immunology Senior Brand Manager

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