Do medical conferences have a role to play? Sharpen the saw

Abstract

Medical conferences are supposed to fulfill a critically important role in the ongoing education of physicians, technicians, nurses, and other health care providers. There are many functions which these conferences meet apart from merely imparting education: sharpening the skills, ability to interact with peers and KOLs, trying new equipment, evolving novel and locally relevant ideas, developing consensus in contentious areas all leading to improvement in health-care delivery, and patient outcomes. However, at the moment, the conferences are too many and not very effective in delivering the purported benefit. Further, there is need to reconcile the entanglement of interests between the organizers (usually physicians) and the fund donors (industry).

Keywords: CME; Conference; Conflict of interest; Health care providers; Industry; Meeting.