Around 500 medical publications and industry partners convened last week in Washington, D.C. for the 22nd annual meeting of ISMPP (International Society for Medical Publication Professionals). Dr. Christopher Radel, PhD., Senior Scientific Services Director and I attended, representing Springer Health+. This year’s theme explores how integrating a shared purpose, meaningful partnerships, and effective personalization drive more impactful communication.

The four-day event included keynotes, session presentations, and roundtables aimed at addressing an assortment of hot topics in publication planning and the publication journey; with the obvious buzz on the use of AI. The focus on AI was less theoretical, and more about how it has been embraced and the challenges it then brings in the context of good publication practices, copyright, ethics, and corporate compliance. Medical communication vendors, and vendors with peripheral/complementary capabilities that were exhibiting have included AI as a core competency and enhancement to their core businesses.

AI use by US physicians

With Tuesday’s keynote session from James Phimister, Advisor to the CEO, Partnerships, at OpenEvidence, the real-world application of AI was levelled up in terms of the practicing physicians and their ability to get point of care clinical guidance in real time. The OpenEvidence platform is for US physicians only, and its content is limited to the publications from NEJM, JAMA, Cochrane Systematic Reviews, Wiley, and NCCN, as well as some major guidelines and society content. According to OpenEvidence, currently 40% of US-based physicians are using OpenEvidence on a regular basis, so as this number increases, the implications for industry will most certainly drive decisions—including where clinical papers are published and their discoverability, and whether they reach their intended audience outside this platform. It is something we should all be aware of and think about as we consult with our clients and liaise with authors.

Where pharmaceuticals and publications meet

A challenge that medical affairs departments seem to be grappling with is the scrutiny levied by medical affairs management at publications and current budgets, and the return on investment. These departments are being challenged with balancing the investments in publications and the impact it’s having on clinician’s decisions in patient care.

Even with the additional investments in publication extenders like plain language summaries, video abstracts, and infographics, which are used to address the changing habits of how content is consumed, there are still questions around their effectiveness at meeting the formats preferred by prescribers. As publication extenders continue to evolve, how they are being used, along with their own experiences with these different publication enhancements, seem to vary company to company.

During one roundtable, ‘Graphical and Video Abstracts: From Development to Peer-Reviewed Publication’, there were several participants from medical affairs, as well as an editor from Adis, part of Springer Nature. A few vocal participants expressed their frustration at journal publishers for the lack of data and metrics should someone want to know and track if the paper has been read. The editor did a commendable job at providing context and perspective from their standpoint while moving the conversation back toward the topic at hand. Our experience shows this is a constant challenge and we’d be happy to share our perspectives with anyone reading this. What is surprising is the historical change in tone and view traditionally held by US medical affairs—in what used to be a ‘red-line’ with a separation between scientific communications and ROI in terms of commercial impact, this new attitude seems to indicate that this line has begun to blur with a more critical analysis of publication spend and commercial effectiveness.

As medical affairs and the publication journey continues to evolve through the use of AI and the content consumption habits of healthcare professionals, the ability to meet and hear directly from medical affair professionals at industry conferences like ISMPP provides an opportunity for Springer Health+ as a leading medical communication agency to share our own perspective about these issues, and share our experience as a trusted partner, to successfully help our clients navigate through these changing and challenging times. It was a pleasure interacting with industry colleagues and we look forward to the next time.