18 - THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Adopting local approaches to global conferences

The European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) 19th annual conference recently took place in Barcelona.

Indeed, it is a huge relief that conferences are beginning to take place again. While some have been held online, the opportunity to meet with colleagues, share expertise and exchange knowledge makes conferences incredibly valuable.

But pharmaceutical companies can only send a certain number of delegates to conferences, and for some clinicians, taking time to travel abroad isn’t feasible. That’s not to mention the climate impact that we are all trying to minimise. So, is there a happy medium?

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are a rare type of cancer affecting more than 36,000 people in the UK.1 At Ipsen, we have been working relentlessly on NETs for over two decades, during which time we have made significant contributions towards optimising care and improving the treatment and management of the disease.

As the Business Unit Head for Chronic Oncology, I am proud of the rich heritage and commitment the company has in NETs.

However, diagnosis remains challenging given the non-specific symptoms of NETs, including abdominal pain, diarrhoea and fatigue. In fact, the average patient-reported time from first symptom onset to diagnosis is 53.8 months, according to survey data.2

There is still much progress to be made in NETs diagnosis and the ENETS annual conference presents a crucial opportunity to share expertise and ultimately improve standard of diagnosis and care for patients. Whilst the hybrid model for this year’s ENETS conference allows for in-person attendance, we recognise there is still a place for the more sustainable virtual alternative.

At the same time, a virtual setting can often lack the same engagement as attending an event in person.

So, we reimagined the virtual conference. With support from the ENETS conference organisers, we created two local events that allowed UK HCPs to benefit from the interactivity of an in-person conference without the need for international travel.

We hosted events in London and Manchester, live telecasting the conference to an in-person audience of around 60 HCPs. The events ran simultaneously to the main conference and offered the full extent of the conference agenda.

Attendees also benefited from bespoke end-of-day, expert-led sessions that summarised key presentations and offered another opportunity for attendees to benefit from their peers’ expertise.

This level of connectivity across a variety of specialisms is crucial in complex diseases like NETs, where successful management requires a truly multidisciplinary team.

The UK ‘hubs’ allowed us to invite UK specialists who otherwise would have attended virtually, missing a chance to network and share best practices with their colleagues.

By ensuring we can engage as many specialists as possible, we hope to improve the time to diagnosis for NETs patients in the future.

Adopting local approaches to global conferences

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