For all doctors maintaining good clinical practice is mandatory, and
therefore we need to keep ourselves up to date.
As one of the doctors who still thinks that attending conferences may be
benficial for my daily work, I would like to comment on Piscane's
suggestions:
First of all it seems important, as he pointed out, to have targets and
objectives for each type of training. But in the rapidly evolving field of
my specialty (and I guess this is the same for many others) conferences
are used to exchange new ideas and technical hints. Yes, the new ideas
could be shared via video-conferencing, but to me the discussions with
colleagues afterwards (not necessarily in the audience) are extremely
fruitful as well. Meeting of other health professionals gives new
perspectives on the own work, and cannot be replaced by video- or email
exchange. Therefore there is still a need for conferences.
I congratulate the author on being able to organise almost 50 educational
events per year in his institution. Unfortunatley he did not specify if
this included teaching junior doctors or nurses on a regular basis -if
this was the case, most of the NHS consultants who give regular teaching
would do the same, and without financial support from the industry. The
goal here is of course not the same as for major meetings, and this should
not be mixed. I wonder how he would achieve the goal of introducing new
ideas to his speciality in small groups.
I think this is impracticable, and journals alone do not allow the
necessary first-hand-discussions in a timely manner.
If any conference is sponsored by a variety of industry, then the
influence of a single company will be reduced. Therefore the organisers
should aim for as many sponsors as possible.
Doctors quite often have to pay for their education, which then will be
benficial to their employer as well. Currently the resources to help the
doctors are small, and just by attending one conference per year the
amount for each consultant is used. Tax relief does not mean a 100%
refund.
But one conference will not be enough for being up to date. Therefore
industry spnosoring allows the individual to improve the service, because
hardly any conference focuses on a single product.
In summary conferences are still useful, and as long as these are not
fully paid by the health authorities, sponsoring will be beneficial.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests:
No competing interests
20 August 2008
Thomas Krasemann
Consultant Paediatric Cardiologist
Evelina Children's Hospital, Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London SE1 7EH
Rapid Response:
Conferences cannot be omitted
For all doctors maintaining good clinical practice is mandatory, and
therefore we need to keep ourselves up to date.
As one of the doctors who still thinks that attending conferences may be
benficial for my daily work, I would like to comment on Piscane's
suggestions:
First of all it seems important, as he pointed out, to have targets and
objectives for each type of training. But in the rapidly evolving field of
my specialty (and I guess this is the same for many others) conferences
are used to exchange new ideas and technical hints. Yes, the new ideas
could be shared via video-conferencing, but to me the discussions with
colleagues afterwards (not necessarily in the audience) are extremely
fruitful as well. Meeting of other health professionals gives new
perspectives on the own work, and cannot be replaced by video- or email
exchange. Therefore there is still a need for conferences.
I congratulate the author on being able to organise almost 50 educational
events per year in his institution. Unfortunatley he did not specify if
this included teaching junior doctors or nurses on a regular basis -if
this was the case, most of the NHS consultants who give regular teaching
would do the same, and without financial support from the industry. The
goal here is of course not the same as for major meetings, and this should
not be mixed. I wonder how he would achieve the goal of introducing new
ideas to his speciality in small groups.
I think this is impracticable, and journals alone do not allow the
necessary first-hand-discussions in a timely manner.
If any conference is sponsored by a variety of industry, then the
influence of a single company will be reduced. Therefore the organisers
should aim for as many sponsors as possible.
Doctors quite often have to pay for their education, which then will be
benficial to their employer as well. Currently the resources to help the
doctors are small, and just by attending one conference per year the
amount for each consultant is used. Tax relief does not mean a 100%
refund.
But one conference will not be enough for being up to date. Therefore
industry spnosoring allows the individual to improve the service, because
hardly any conference focuses on a single product.
In summary conferences are still useful, and as long as these are not
fully paid by the health authorities, sponsoring will be beneficial.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests