Adapting to Scientific Meeting Climate Change
on Twitter since 2011 under the handle @fischmd. With
more than 10,000 Tweets and more than 13,000 followers,
he has a large presence and a large audience to consult
with. “The people I know and my network of connections
are vastly bigger than they used to be in 2005.”
On-Site Adjustments
ASH and Social
Media
The American Society of Hematology
encourages its members, meeting attendees, and members of the media alike
to stay abreast of its announcements and
ground-breaking research through social
media including Facebook (www.facebook.com/americansocietyofhematology),
LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/
americansocietyofhematology), and
Twitter (@ASH_hematology). Follow the
conversation by searching the hashtags:
• #ASH15 – 2015 ASH Annual
Meeting (December 5-8, 2015, in
Orlando, FL)
• #HOA15 - 2015 Highlights of ASH
meetings
• #ASHMHM15 – 2015 ASH Meeting
on Hematologic Malignancies (The
2016 meeting will be held September 17-19, 2016, in Chicago)
One of the Special-Interest Sessions
atthis year’s ASH annual meeting,
“Social Media for the Hematologist,”
will focus on social media as important
and valuable means of communicating
advances in science and medicine. The
session will offer basic guidance about
how to use Twitter as well as some
case studies on how Twitter has been
successfully used in medicine. Join
Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd; Michael A.
Thompson, MD, PhD; Amber M. Yates,
MD; Navneet S. Majhail, MD, MS;
Laura C. Michaelis, MD; Jeff Szer, MB,
BS, FRACP; and Cynthia Chmielewski,
BA, for a panel discussion on how
professional hematology research and
clinical communities can use Twitter
effectively to promote conversations
that might lead to a positive impact on
patient outcomes.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Social Media for the Hematologist
Sunday, December 6, 2015
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Orange County Convention Center, W312
58
ASH Clinical News
A few years back, science was more of a slow wave,
rather than a flash flood, Dr. Fisch explained. When
attending large scientific meetings, he would have
conflicted feelings about his obligations while there, like
making time to prepare and present his own research
posters and attending sessions that he thought might
contain interesting new research. After the meeting, the
most ground-breaking research would filter out over a
period of months. If he missed an important presentation or paper, he might be able to catch up when it was
published in a peer-reviewed journal or when a summary was published in a trade publication.
“Now, social media take good ideas and good content and allow them to be disseminated quickly,” Dr.
Fisch said, noting technology as one of the major difference between the scientific meetings of 2005 and 2015.
In 2005, YouTube had only just launched, texting existed but was barely used, there was no Twitter, and the
iPhone was still two years away. In 2015, it’s difficult to
ignore the blue glow that smartphones and tablets cast
over the audience’s faces during presentations, according to Dr. Fisch.
“When I have presented in recent years, I’ve noticed
a certain number of people are looking at you, but others are checking their smartphones or typing on their
devices, whether it’s taking notes or Tweeting,” Dr. Fisch
said. “I’ve even heard some colleagues say, ‘The sound of
the keyboard is the new applause.’”
“Twenty years ago, you would have to wait until the
end of the meeting to discuss something that sparked
your interest with your colleagues, and if you wanted
to learn more about the topic or the speaker you would
head to the library,” Dr. Desiderio said. “Now, while
you’re sitting in the session, you can search for the
presenter’s other published papers on your smartphone
to get more information or context for the science being
presented.”
Of course, all of this available technology also means
that members of the audience have distractions at the
tips of their fingers; presenters may have to work harder
to keep the audience’s attention. “A good presenter and
his or her mentor will spend time making their slides
attractive,” Dr. Mullighan said. “Presenters have to keep
things concise, punchy, and visually and intellectually
attractive.” (For some tips on delivering a successful
scientific presentation, read “The Do’s and Don’ts of
Research Presentations” by Morie A. Gertz, MD, from
our April issue in SIDEBAR, opposite page).
However, Dr. Mullighan added that inattentive audience members is not a new phenomenon; smartphones
or not, presenters have always had to compete with
people chatting, scarfing down their lunches, or even
catching up on their sleep.
Dr. Desiderio agreed that attention-grabbing information is always the objective. “Clear, easy-to-read
slides and an engaging speaker are always effective, but
at the end of the day it has to be a well-thought-out scientific story that gets to a question that people want to
hear an answer to,” she said. “When the ASH Program
Committee develops the Scientific Program, the decisions always come down to having spectacular cuttingedge science that brings people in the room – and keeps
them there.”
Adapting to Change
In addition to adapting to on-site changes at the meeting, today’s presenters have to adapt to the science they
present being available for public consumption practically the second they step away from the podium. Years
ago, many scientific meetings were viewed as closed
scientific forums, Dr. Mullighan said, and the results
presented there were considered confidential. Now,
thanks in large part to social media, the science is out
from behind those closed doors.
“Presenting research at a meeting is not a one-way
road like it used to be,” said Irene Ghobrial, MD, an
associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical
School in Boston, Massachusetts. “When you give a
presentation to convey findings or a message in 2015, it’s
a two-way conversation.”
Many medical societies, including ASH, have worked
diligently to adapt to this changing environment.
“A certain number of
people are looking
at you, but others are
checking their smartphones or typing on
their devices, whether it’s taking notes or
Tweeting. The sound
of the keyboard is the
new applause.”
—MICHAEL J. FISCH, MD
“Meetings used to prohibit photography; if organizers saw people taking pictures they would throw [those
people] out,” Dr. Mullighan said. “Now, organizations
recognize that it is impossible to regulate that behavior
and, instead, are introducing new policies to make this
practice less disruptive – such as asking people to not
obstruct views or use flashes.”
To keep ahead of the changing times, ASH employs a Twitter hashtag each year and encourages both
reporters and attendees to use it when discussing news
coming out of the annual meeting (#ASH15), and the
meeting badges now include a field to display attendees’ Twitter handles in addition to their names and
institutions. This year’s annual meeting even features
a Special-Interest Session on “Social Media for the
Hematologist,” sponsored by the ASH Committee
on Communications, in which panelists will discuss
how to use Twitter as a tool for advancing science and
improving patient outcomes. (For details about this
session, see the SIDEBAR.)
The social media storm shows no signs of stopping,
either. “For the most part, I think speakers generally
understand that everything they put out can be shared
immediately and they have adjusted to this climate,” Dr.
Desiderio said. “There are very few meetings left where
that is not the case.”
However, the accessibility of the data is a drawback
November 2015