Drug Companies Heavily Recruit Specialist Physicians for Educational Speaker Programs

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Specialist physicians deliver 44% of the educational presentations paid for by life sciences companies, according to a new study from Cutting Edge Information.

“Top 50 pharmaceutical companies bring in the widest variety of speakers for their programs”

Cutting Edge Information’s study, “Educational Speaker Programs: Event Management and Recruitment in a Complex Regulatory Environment,” revealed that not only do specialist key opinion leaders offer the expertise in their respective field, but also garner the respect of their peers from Day 1 of a speaking event. Doctors who are active in professional medical organizations and patient advocacy groups, are very attractive to educational speaker program teams.

“Top 50 pharmaceutical companies bring in the widest variety of speakers for their programs,” said Michelle Vitko, senior research analyst at Cutting Edge Information. “However, Specialist KOLs still were the most popular choice participating in 33% of the educational speaker programs that we conducted by the Top 50 companies.”

Although there are no set speaker criteria to guarantee the success of an educational speaker program, many companies prefer that speakers have hands-on medical experience in treating the disease state covered in an educational presentation. This is one of the main reasons why specialists are a large part of the current recruiting pool for educational speaker programs.

Half of the surveyed small drug companies and medical device organizations in the study choose specialists to deliver their educational speeches. Although it is acceptable for small companies to choose other members of the medical community such as nurses or primary care physicians, medical device companies rely heavily on people with extensive expertise to fully effectively communicate educational information.

“Educational Speaker Programs: Event Management and Recruitment in a Complex Regulatory Environment” (http://www.cuttingedgeinfo.com/research/medical-affairs/educational-speaker-programs/) feature detailed data on speaker program team structure, recruitment methods, training and event compensation. The report also provides metrics illustrating educational speaker event management, including typical attendance, average cost per attendee, and best times to hold events. Use this report to:

Prepare educational speaker programs to face increased public scrutiny and smaller budgets
Create superior educational speaker programs by recruiting, training, and compensating high-caliber speakers
Understand the impending Sunshine Act and increased transparency’s impact on speaker events

For more information about educational speaker programs, contact Cassie Demeter at 919-433-0389.