New Research on Physician Skepticism Toward Healthcare Marketing Methods to Debut at 2009 HCEA Annual Meeting

A new study by researchers at the University of Mississippi finds that physicians show less skepticism toward information received at medical exhibits than other methods of healthcare marketing. The findings will be presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA), June 13-16, in Tampa. Full Story »

Eric Allen Blog
Skepticism in Healthcare Convention Marketing?

It's very difficult (and may soon be impossible thanks to state prescriber privacy initiatives) to measure the effectiveness of exhibit marketing from a sales perspective in healthcare. That can be true even among devices, where long sales cycles make it difficult to say exactly what medium most directly contributed to the sale. As a result, our industry needs to get more deeply involved in measuring effectiveness from a marketing perspective. Some of this has been done at a fairly rudimentary level -- booth recall studies, for example, or message awareness research. But to really start to speak the language of the brand teams and higher level marketing executives at healthcare companies, we're going to have to go deeper. Full Story »

Eric Allen Blog
The Healthcare Exhibitors' Matrix of State Laws and Regulations

There is widespread confusion in the industry right now about state laws targeting healthcare convention marketing. First of all, no one seems to know how many there are. Most counts I've heard say four, but some say five, some six. Second, no one seems to know which states they are. California and Massachusetts usually make the list. From there, confusion starts to set in. Some say DC. Some Vermont. Some Minnesota. Third, no one seems to know what's in these laws. Are they gift-to-physician limits? Are they bans or do they just require reporting? Or are they detailer registration laws? Or something else? (And for pete's sake, can I just get an answer on the cappuccino machine?) Full Story »

JAMA Calls for End to Industry Support of Societies, Exempts Exhibits

Medical associations should aim to eliminate all funding from the healthcare industry "except for income from journal advertising and exhibit hall fees," according to an article in the April 1, 2009, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The article, whose authors include JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine DeAngelis, also offers recommendations for steps organizations can take to begin eliminating perceived conflicts of interest, such as this recommendation related to exhibits: Full Story »

Eric Allen Blog
The Future of Healthcare Exhibit Halls

The future of the healthcare exhibit hall is being researched — something that, as far as I know, has never been done before. HCEA's "Future of the Healthcare Exhibit Hall" Task Force is commissioning qualitative research to explore healthcare professionals' preferences relative to the exhibit hall. Not the exhibit hall as it is now, but rather, an exhibit hall of the future, as it could be. That's the part that I don't think has ever been done before. Full Story »

Obama Appoints New FDA Chief

President Barack Obama announced on March 14 his nomination of Dr. Margaret Hamburg, former Commissioner of Health for the City of New York, as the new Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).  According to a White House press release, “Dr. Hamburg is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine, and an authority on global health, public health systems, infectious disease, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness.”  In addition, Obama announced his nomination of Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore, as the new Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA.